Autism and Mental Health: The Role of Occupational Therapy.

This article discusses how occupational therapy can help support the mental health of autistic people. Many autistic individuals experience depression and anxiety. Occupational therapists can help by focusing on meaningful activities that support wellbeing. The authors suggest helping autistic people engage in activities they find meaningful, building on their strengths, and supporting positive feelings about being autistic. More research is needed to develop better ways to help.

This guest editorial introduces a special issue on autism and mental health, highlighting the high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidality among autistic individuals. The authors propose that occupational therapy, with its focus on meaningful activities and occupation, can uniquely address mental health needs in autistic clients. Using the Person-Environment-Occupation Model, the editorial outlines how interactions between personal factors, environmental conditions, and occupational engagement affect mental health outcomes. Key opportunities include promoting meaningful activity participation, supporting individual strengths, and fostering positive autistic identity.

The authors emphasize the need for future research using culturally humble and participatory approaches, and notably use identity-first language reflecting community preferences.

Occupational therapists should consider mental health needs when working with autistic clients. Interventions should focus on meaningful occupation, individual strengths, and supporting positive autistic identity. The Person-Environment-Occupation Model provides a useful framework for understanding factors affecting mental health outcomes in autism.

This is a guest editorial rather than empirical research, providing commentary and framework rather than data. No specific intervention outcomes or effectiveness measures are reported. The recommendations are based on existing literature review rather than new research findings.

Research has indicated a high prevalence of mental health problems among autistic people, with elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality. The profession of occupational therapy has its roots in mental health and can offer a unique focus on occupation to support the mental health needs of autistic clients. In this Guest Editorial we introduce articles for this special issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy related to autism and mental health and use the Person-Environment-Occupation Model. The articles offer insights into how interactions among person, environment, and occupation factors affect the mental health of autistic populations and demonstrate ways that mental health can be supported through occupational engagement.

Opportunities to support the mental health of autistic people include promoting engagement in meaningful activities, supporting individual strengths, and bolstering clients' sense of self and identification with their autistic identity. Future research is needed to uncover and test interventions to support autistic clients and should reflect cultural humility and participatory approaches. We chose to use identity-first language (rather than person-first language) to describe the autistic community in this Guest Editorial out of respect for common community member preferences and in accordance with recommendations for anti-ableist language use (Bottema-Beutel et al., 2021). Decisions about language for each article in this special issue were made by the respective authors.