Oliver McGowan training for healthcare

[nothingcomestonothing]

Sorry if there's already a thread on this, I did look but didn't see one.

A new compulsory online training for HCP and social care workers has been launched, named after a young man who had autism who died after being overmedicated in hospital. It's a very sad case, and a good thing for professionals to have greater awareness of the needs and possible presentations of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

However. The training includes this snippet of interest: 'There is some evidence that rates of autism are higher in gender-diverse people, but the reasons why are unknown'.

Now far be it from me, but surely it's the case not that gender diverse people are more likely to have autism, but rather that autistic people are more likely to identify as having a different gender? Because of well understood phenomena about being autistic such as feeling different, being quite literal in terms of stereotypes fitting one sex not the other, fixating on a special interest etc etc.

It seemed such a poorly thought out phrase. Maybe I'm just hyper sensitive to gender ideology within healthcare, but in a training about seeing autistic people as individuals with individual strengths and needs, to just say 'oh yeah, people who think they are a different gender are more likely to be autistic, dunno why' seemed so lazy. Plus there was lots in the training about diagnostic overshadowing, where information on a person's health or needs is overlooked due to the assumption that their diagnosis is the explanation for everything about them. Irony.

Thanks. It's on my (long) list of training to complete. I'll look out for it. It would be a real shame if the training has been slanted as Paula McGowan is so passionate about it.

However. The training includes this snippet of interest: 'There is some evidence that rates of autism are higher in gender-diverse people, but the reasons why are unknown'.

Now far be it from me, but surely it's the case not that gender diverse people are more likely to have autism, but rather that autistic people are more likely to identify as having a different gender? Because of well understood phenomena about being autistic such as feeling different, being quite literal in terms of stereotypes fitting one sex not the other, fixating on a special interest etc etc.

Spot on. It's constantly presented this way, with the cause and effect the wrong way round. I remember feeling incredulous when I came across the first academic paper I found that did this - from Cambridge University. It was a very eye-opening moment for me about how badly the medical profession and academia have misrepresented the conflation of autism and gender identity.

They have it the wrong way around and it won't help anyone.
Such a shame as the original intent is good but gender ideology wins in the NHS at the moment. Hoping for change.

Whilst i understand the issue you are raising. The important bit really is to flag that your gender non conforming person in front of you may also have autism (possibly undiagnosed) and therefore not be able to communicate in the way you'd expect, which could be very important in terms of side effects of medicine or duscussing pain /reacting to pain

Im pleased this training is happening because we have really struggled accessing healthcare due to communication and sensory issues.

I agree it’s the wrong way round.

A very fair point. It's amazing that his mum campaigned the way she did, so that others hopefully don't have to go through this too.

Just a shame that this conflation of issues is baked into it.

The training is good, and that sentence is the only time gender is mentioned as far as I remember. It just stood out to me as jarring. And I hate that gender gets shoehorned into everything so uncritically in the NHS.