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Inclusive Talk
Background to the research
The Inclusive Talk project is a 3 year project funded by NIHR that started in November 2024.
Over 80% of autistic adults and 50% of adults with learning disabilities (LD) struggle with their mental health. Psychological therapies can help with this for some people. In England, these therapies are usually offered by a service known as NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression (previously IAPT). However, many autistic adults and adults with LD report difficult experiences in these services, such as long waits, access processes not suited to their needs and finding therapy unhelpful. This can cause their mental health to deteriorate, leading to crises and potentially preventable hospital admissions.​
The aim of this project is to address this inequity by creating new knowledge about NHS Talking Therapies for autistic adults and adults with LD. This will be used to increase access, improve experiences in, and outcomes of NHS Talking Therapies for these groups, so they can live happier, healthier lives. An easy read summary of the project is being developed and will be added here soon.
How will we do this?
We have unique access to a database of all 5 million adults who have been referred to NHS Talking Therapies since 2012. This includes around 23,329 autistic adults & 24,664 adults with LD. We will analyse:
1. Inequities in access & outcomes faced by autistic adults and adults with LD in NHS Talking Therapies and the added effect of other aspects of their lives that can affect care (e.g., ethnicity or long-term health conditions).
2. What factors are linked to better NHS talking therapy experiences and whether better outcomes lead to fewer future mental health hospital admissions for autistic people and people with an LD.
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3. If having a learning disability is accurately recorded in NHS Talking Therapies records.
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We will then explore in more depth the experience of those most involved (stakeholders), creating outputs to improve these services. We will:
1. Review all evidence on access to and experiences of mental health services for adults with LD and autistic adults.
2. Interview 15 autistic adults, 15 adults with LD, and 15 clinicians about their experiences and potential solutions to problems.​
3. Run stakeholder meetings to collaboratively produce outputs and plans to improve services for autistic adults and adults with LD.​​​​
In this video, Clinical Psychologist and UCL Professor Josh Stott talks about the INCLUSIVE Talk project which aims to improve NHS talking therapy services for autistic people and people with a learning disability.
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The project will use a unique national dataset of 5 million people, and interviews with autistic people, people with learning disabilities, their carers, clinicians and policy makers.
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We will develop plans and resources that are designed for and with these groups. We hope that this can help to improve access to, experience of and outcomes in talking therapies for them.
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If you are an autistic person, someone with a learning disability, a carer, or a clinician, researcher or policymaker doing related work, then contact Josh on j.stott@ucl.ac.uk or project co-lead Amber John on ajohn@liverpool.ac.uk.
Get in touch!
If you want to hear more about this project or to share related work you are doing, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact Prof Josh Stott (j.stott@ucl.ac.uk) and/or Dr Amber John (ajohn@liverpool.ac.uk).
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If you have lived experience of learning disabilities or autism, and you want to hear about opportunities to get involved in this work, consider joining our Research List.
