To prevent autistic suicide, 'make lives worth living'

Paper: "'The best way we can stop suicides is by making lives worth living': a mixed-methods survey in the UK of perspectives on suicide prevention from the autism community"

This paper was published in 2026, in the journal EClinicalMedicine.

The research was initiated, promoted and supported by charity Autism Action, whose number one priority is suicide prevention in autistic people. The authors were Dr Rachel Moseley, Dr Sarah Marsden, Dr Mirabel Pelton, Dr Elizabeth Weir, Dr Tanya Procyshyn, Dr Carrie Allison, Dr Tracey Parsons, Dr Sarah Cassidy, Ms Tanatswa Chikaura, Ms Holly Hodges, Professor David Mosse, Professor Jacqui Rodgers, Dr Ian Hall, Dr Lewis Owens, Mr Jon Cheyette, Mr David Crichton, Dr Darren Hedley, and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen (author links will open in separate tabs).

You can click HERE to download this paper.

Please note that the paper may be triggering: it includes some distressing descriptions of suicidal thoughts and the experiences which led to them. Please take care of yourself; you may decide not to read it right now if you are in a vulnerable state.

Keep reading to see a less-detailed plain English summary, or you can watch my explanatory video!

Why is this an important issue?

Every day, autistic people live with the distressing reality of suicidal thoughts. Autistic people without learning disabilities are up to seven times more likely to die by suicide. This needs to change, but we're still figuring out how to make that happen.

In this study, we asked autistic people and their supporters and/or allies for their ideas for suicide prevention. We also wanted to know their thoughts about where suicide prevention efforts should be focused: for instance, whether we should prioritise crisis support, or prioritise longer-term preventative actions focused on autistic people who are not yet experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Here is a video summary of this paper. You can open it up to large screen, and turn captions on and off by clicking the 'CC' button. (Please ignore my speech impediment in places!)

What was the purpose of this study, and what did the researchers do?

We wanted to hear autistic people's ideas and priorities for ways to reduce or prevent suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and suicide deaths in autistic people. We also wanted to hear ideas and priorities from those who support/advocate for an autistic person (their supporters/allies).

Working with the charity Autism Action and their advisory panel of autistic people and family members of autistic people, we designed a two-phase study:

Phase 1: The ideas-gathering stage

We used an online survey to learn

about autistic people's suicide-related experiences. We asked participants to

write in short and/or long-term ideas for how suicide could be prevented.

We analysed 3373 suggestions from Phase 1 participants. We distilled these into 63 specific ideas, and built them into:

Phase 2: The ideas-ranking stage

In a second online survey, we asked a separate, larger group of participants to rank the ideas generated by Phase 1 participants (i.e. to select their favourites). We also gave these participants the opportunity to tell us their own ideas about suicide prevention, and what researchers, clinicians and policy-makers should focus on.

Altogether, across both phases of our survey, 3962 autistic people took part. We also had 627 people (called 'supporters/allies') who either currently supported/advocated for an autistic person, and/or had been bereaved by the suicide of an autistic person. Some supporters/allies were autistic themselves! Most participants (95%) were from the UK.

We had so many findings from this two-phase study that we published several papers, including one on the suicidal experiences of Phase 1 participants, and one on their experiences of trying to seek help (pages will open in new windows).

Autistic people had so much to say about suicide prevention that we split these findings into two papers:

The paper you're reading about here will tell you what Phase 2 participants thought was important for suicide prevention in autistic people: for instance, whether crisis measures or preventative actions should be prioritised.

In the other paper, you can read about the ideas that Phase 1 participants had for suicide prevention. It will also tell you which of these were selected as priorities by Phase 2 participants. That paper is therefore about both phases of the study.

Here is a summary of the results:

what Phase 2 participants had to say about suicide prevention.

Here is a summary of the results:

what Phase 2 participants had to say about suicide prevention.

We wanted to know what participants thought about the 'staging' of suicide prevention

When it comes to suicide prevention, there are different kinds of actions or interventions. Some are long-term and preventative, focused on improving well-being in people who are not yet experiencing suicidal thoughts or mental illness - so that they never get to that place of crisis. Others are focused on helping people with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviour.

Universal approaches focus on reducing suicide through changes that affect everyone in society: for example, reducing the cost of living to reduce poverty. Universal approaches can be helpful because they're relevant for people with and without diagnoses, but because of inequalities in society, they may not always help marginalised groups, like autistic people.

Selective approaches focus on a specific group and try to prevent the development of poor mental health and suicide in that group. For example, intervening to improve the experience of education for autistic people, so that they can achieve their potential and enter employment more easily.

Indicated interventions are crisis measures for people with suicidal thoughts or behaviour. For example, apps or therapies.

"Some of these [ideas] are really important for supporting autistic people who are actively suicidal, but it’s also important to achieve wider societal change to prevent people reaching that point" (Participant quote)

Governments tend to prefer indicated interventions, because we can quickly see if they are working.

Researchers say that to save the greatest number of lives, we must focus on preventing suicidal thoughts and mental illness from developing in the first place.

Autistic people and their supporters/allies tended to agree. However, they recognised how difficult it is to decide between "urgent" interventions targeting the "lost generation" of late-diagnosed and poorly autistic people who are in crisis right now, and interventions targeting the "root causes" to prevent people "going up Stress and desperation mountain". We need both crisis measures and to focus on long-term prevention.

Here are some of their views.

"... early intervention is overlooked and crisis management is prioritised. It [suicide] starts in childhood, we must start from the beginning" (Participant quote)

"I prioritised early intervention over crisis care because I was going for ideals. However crisis care may be more important primarily until better systems are established" (Participant quote)

"Mental health support will fall short if an autistic's financial, material or physical needs remain unmet. We must ensure autistics have a foundation of safety, addressing the causes of despair" (Participant quote)

"Reduce suicide by reducing trauma. That starts in society before mental health services needed"

(Participant quote)

One autistic participant explained simply that "the best way we can stop suicides is by making lives worth living - friends, lovers, community, financial security via adapting the world of work to accommodate autism".

To achieve this, many participants felt that "radical social change", across all areas of society, was needed to fix "brutalised, broken systems". Importantly, they pointed out that suicidal thoughts can be seen as a "rational" or "logical" response to the way autistic people are treated in society, rather than as an individual mental illness. In this regard, some felt that the Government did not take suicide risk in autistic people seriously. Here are some of their quotes:

"My suicide attempt wasn't a mental health crisis. It was just I knew I couldn't be who society wanted me to be. I suspect there's a lot of suicides like my attempt, where no crisis is involved" (Participant quote)

"Why protect us from suicide when we are made actively vulnerable by NHS Policy and Government politics?" (Participant quote)

"I lost my sister, and the cracks in the systems were very noticeable"

(Participant quote)

"Until we change the system, which wasn’t built for us, we’re stuck playing whack-a-mole"

(Participant quote)

Participants highlighted unmet needs which would need to be addressed to prevent autistic people dying by suicide.

These were needs for:

1. Acceptance, belonging and community

"To reduce suicide ideation, autistics need to feel much less alienated. We need help to allow us to function more fully as part of society. Isolation is the hardest thing" (Participant quote)

"finding a peer group was the most profound support for my suicidal ideation and losing that peer group was the most profound knockback" (Participant quote)

2. Accessible, appropriate and trustworthy healthcare and crisis services

"It is appalling to me that I can be sectioned for being autistic under the Mental Health Act, but the clinicians responsible have no idea how to help in a crisis. They make it worse, make you feel no one can help" (Participant quote)

"A phone line is only helpful if it actually helps, endless signposting contributes to suicide. Current ‘help’ is fractured, unco-ordinated smoke and mirrors, none of it is autism or carer friendly" (Participant quote)

3. Access to diagnosis and postdiagnostic care

"I never had any support or help to understand my Autism. And this led in part to suicide attempts. Finding information has been near impossible and I have learnt to cope or not most of the time" (Participant quote)

"Every turn is difficult when trying to get a diagnosis and support. As a parent, you have to fight for everything and you shouldn't have to. I was told to keep my child away from anything sharp" (Participant quote)

4. Suitable educational provision and transition support

"Me and so many autistic people I know feel absolutely useless and without hope at this age (I'm 21) because we feel burnt out and lost after leaving school/college" (Participant quote)

"We need an education system that is flexible and can meet the needs of autistic kids without requiring them to exhibit severe signs of trauma before providing accommodations and alternative routes" (Participant quote)

5. Suitable employment and social care in the community

"ensure neurodivergent individuals are recruited into different job roles aligned to capability and clear process have to be followed support positive work placements" (Participant quote)

"I [thought about] what I would need to live a healthy and fulfilling life. I'm waiting on a social worker and I barely make it through day to day" (Participant quote)

6. Financial security

"too many are stuck in a cycle of recurring autistic burnout (often with suicidality) because of pushing themselves past their limits to make enough money to live" (Participant quote)

"Many kill themselves after losing their support network and financial support. They struggle to work or pay rent. The fear is overwhelming. Most live with others and don't work. They need money" (Participant quote)

7. Safety from victimisation (abuse), and equity within the criminal justice system

"My son has a 2:1 Law degree and is experiencing huge and extensive disability discrimination in the workplace which has lead to his second attempt at suicide" (Participant quote)

"Bullying wrecks lives and autistic people are a target for this. Autistic people can only reach their full potential if bullying is stamped out at school and work" (Participant quote)

8. Equality for people with diverse identities and needs

"For suicide prevention we need radical social change with a redistribution of resources and disability, racial, queer, climate and all other forms of justice" (Participant quote)

"Access to diagnosis more available and awareness to marginalised groups (people of colour, immigrants, high-functioning [sic], women)" (Participant quote)

Note: all quotations are participants' original words from the study.

Additional findings, in views shared by participants, were:

Suicide prevention strategies

must be co-designed and co-produced with autistic people.

"We need the empathy and understanding we can only really get from other neurodivergent people"

What are potential weaknesses in the study?

We tried hard to reduce our influence on the data so that our participants' voices shone through. While we show original quotations from participants, we couldn't avoid having to interpret the data, so couldn't totally remove our influence from the findings.

We are a neurodiverse team and tried to involve autistic people throughout the design and running of the study. However, our study wasn't as participatory as it could have been.

Some people's voices were missing, including those of autistic people of colour, and people with learning disabilities and higher support needs.

Finally, our findings are quite specific to the UK. However, we believe that they reflect problems which autistic people are facing in many countries across the world. We believe our participants' views will be relevant to autistic people in other countries.

Thank you for reading!

If you want to read the other paper related to this one, you can find that here.

Support must include

autistic people without formal diagnoses, but in addition to this,

"nobody should be in a position where they can’t obtain a formal diagnosis"

How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?

There is virtually no research on ways to prevent suicide in autistic people. When we did this study, there were no published scientific papers which asked autistic people for their opinions on this matter. This study was an opportunity for autistic people and their supporters/allies to tell policymakers what really matters when it comes to saving lives.

While our participants recognised that crisis measures are needed to help autistic people right now, longer-term change is needed across society.

We need to prevent suicidal thoughts and mental illness from developing. To do this, we have to move beyond seeing these simply in terms of sickness which needs treating in an individual. We have to recognise that suicide is directly related to growing up in a society where autistic people are dehumanised and denied equal access to resources.

Charity Autism Action will use these findings to guide their policy campaigning and inform the research they support.

Some of the views expressed in our findings, such as the problems with the UK educational system, are things that autistic people, their supporters/allies and researchers have been pointing out for a long time. However, this study highlights that these are still major problems that the government needs to address - and they need to do so in partnership with autistic people.

We hope there is power in our collective voices, and will work hard to bring them to government attention.

If you found this interesting, you may like to read:

“'I did not think they could help me': UK-based autistic adults’ reasons for not seeking public healthcare when experiencing suicidality" (2025)

"'A combination of everything': a mixed-methods approach to the factors which autistic people consider important in suicidality" (2025)

"Community priorities for preventing suicide in autistic people: an approach to guide policy and practice" (2026)

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or your mental health, please look at the resources page in case there is something helpful there for you.