Understanding Service Usage and Needs for Adults with ASD: The Importance of Living Situation.
Adults with autism who live with family are the most underserved group—screen them first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dudley et al. (2019) sent surveys to adults with autism and their families. They asked where the adult lives and what services they use.
The team compared adults who live with family to those who live on their own or with others.
What they found
Adults who still live with parents get fewer services, have more unmet needs, and hit more roadblocks when they try to get help.
Living at home predicts trouble, even after the child becomes an adult.
How this fits with other research
Hare et al. (2004) first showed families feel high distress when services vanish after high school. Dudley et al. (2019) now give numbers that prove the gap is still wide.
Sticinski et al. (2022) add that single caregivers feel even less support. Together the papers say family structure and marital status pile extra risk on top of living at home.
Smith et al. (2010) used daily diaries to show mothers of adults with autism do extra chores and feel extra fatigue. The new survey links that daily load to lower service use, closing the loop between stress at home and empty appointment books.
Why it matters
If your client is an adult with autism who lives with family, treat the home as a red flag. Ask about unmet needs at every visit. Offer to meet the caregiver, list respite options, and write referrals during the session. One extra question can open doors that have been shut since the teen years.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
With the increasing prevalence of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research examining the service experiences of this population is greatly needed. The current study investigated service use, unmet needs, and obstacles to service access for a large sample of adults with ASD. After accounting for various demographic factors known to impact service usage and needs, living situation was a significant predictor of service use, needs, and obstacles to services. Adults with ASD living with family reported less service use, higher unmet need, and more obstacles to accessing services. With more than half of this adult sample living with family, results have clear public policy implications to support the increasing population of adults with ASD living with aging caregivers.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3729-0