Vaccine and mental health priority, ASD

[SunnySideAndMarmite]

I'm a bit confused by what counts as "severe mental illness" in terms of vaccination priority. The definition given is schizophrenia, bipolar, and any other mental illness "that causes severe functional impairment".
The latter doesn't seem to be clarified anywhere. Would being on disability benefits for mental health be enough, for example?

I have Autism and related mental health issues. I feel a bit guilty wanting an early vaccine as physically I'm unlikely to get seriously ill from covid. But what I'm terrified of is catching it and having to self-isolate for two weeks. I don't do very well in isolation at all and am only just holding it together now tbh.

I'm a bit confused because I have seen posts on here where people seem to have been offered a vaccine for "mild" (sorry not sure of a better word) mental health issues.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any more idea about what counts as priority tbh. (Autism doesn't on its own, incidentally.)

Well anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance misuse are common comorbities of autism/aspergers, but if those things are treated at GP level, they wouldn’t be classified as “severe”.

It depends exactly what your diagnoses and treatments are, and how the guidelines are being interpreted by your surgery, which makes it hard to take a guess, even if we were nosey ask to ask for your exact presentation.

Right, that makes sense. It's just that people were posting saying they didn't know why they were entitled to an early vaccine and pondering it might be due to past spells of depression or anxiety.

Feels a bit unfair on the autism/mental health front, as people with autism are often considered unsuitable for treatment from mental health teams and so wouldn't be in secondary services, even if quite impaired.

Feels a bit unfair on the autism/mental health front, as people with autism are often considered unsuitable for treatment from mental health teams and so wouldn't be in secondary services, even if quite impaired.

We are having the same struggle with a member of our family. I so sympathise.