Digitally enabled, self-referral as an effective approach for young autistic people to access support: pilot study

Abstract Background Limited resources in health and social care and long waiting lists for autism assessment are resulting in high numbers of autistic people not being adequately supported. We sought to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of meeting this support need through an end-to-end digital self-referral and digital mental health service. Methods Together with health and social care teams and young autistic people we developed a self-referral pathway that allowed young autistic people (aged 16–25) to access the digital self-management support system, Brain in Hand (BiH), without the need for diagnosis or referral by an external agency. Participants were reached using digital media channels which linked to a BiH landing page. Reach, progress and engagement through the pathway was monitored and participants were surveyed on their eligibility and suitability for BiH. Results A total of 243 BiH licences were issued within 9 weeks of the start of the digital media campaign which reached nearly half a million people with close to 20,000 clicking through to the BiH landing page. Most of the young people being issued with the digital support tool demonstrated high levels of need, 69% experienced clinically significant depression, 83% anxiety, 99% moderate or high executive function challenges, and 60% lacked current support. Conclusions This pilot demonstrates that young people understand their needs and directing them to a support service through a digital media campaign presents an efficient and effective approach to reaching young autistic people in need. This suggests that digital media channels and self-referral could offer a practical solution to broaden access to a range of digital mental health platforms without placing additional resource burden on health and social care teams.