Understanding Behaviour by Laura Joyce

It’s been a very long time since I wanted to high five Kier Starmer, but if this goes through I will make a rare exception for this. Just a quick one tho. Then I’ll get back to my rage.

There will be no group at Broxburn United Sports Club today.

An NHS Tayside Clinical Psychologist has carried out research looking at the meaningful impact of receiving an autism diagnosis, irrespective of age.

Dr Jamie Ferrie’s ‘Exploring Autism in Middle-to-Later Life: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Cognitively and Verbally able Autistic Adults’ highlights the importance of supporting people to reflect on their life with a new understanding of themselves.

Autism is commonly associated with being diagnosed in children and young people, however, increasingly adults in middle-to-later life are seeking diagnosis and support.

Despite increasing awareness of neurodivergence and autism in older generations, there remains little research in this area meaning the voices of older autistic people are often underrepresented and unrecognised.

Dr Ferrie explored the experiences of autistic people aged 40+, which involved screening more than 3,000 research articles and identifying 14 that were eligible for analysis.

This involved using a ‘thematic synthesis’ - a research method used to combine and analyse the findings of multiple qualitative studies.

The research identified overarching themes emerging from the experiences:

• Being autistic in a dominantly neurotypical environment leads some people to experience stigma, discrimination and increased isolation. Some then internalised these beliefs, which impacted on their sense of identity.
• Health services could reinforce ageist and ablest attitudes towards older generations, which could impact the opportunity for timely diagnosis and support.
• For some, a diagnosis offered power, validation, a shared language and way of re-evaluating life through a new lens. For others, a late diagnosis brought feelings of frustration, a sense of injustice for how life could have been if earlier diagnosis.

Dr Ferrie said, “It was important to consider how we as professionals involved in diagnostic assessments could better understand autistic older people to inform clinical services.

“The research highlights the meaningful impact of receiving a diagnosis of autism, irrespective of age. It also highlights implications for services involved in providing more timely diagnostic assessment and support that is neuro-affirming and meets the needs of an under-looked generation.

“This research will inform how we, as services, respond to the changing needs of older neurodivergent people experiencing mental health difficulties.”

The full report can be found in the comments...

JU**IE, ALKY, TRAMP, WASTER, SCUM!!

These are commonplace phrases and expressions we hear everyday. Steps to Hopes purpose is to aid and support the homeless and those suffering from addiction. But we wanted to help open people’s eyes, to educate people, and more importantly to change some of the public’s perceptions. We wanted to not label someone just homeless, or an addict...but to tell their name, share their story. This is someone’s son or daughter. The correct terminology is SUFFERING ADDICT. No one ever set out to be addicted to drugs, to loose their family and suffer on the streets with no home. But this is where addiction takes you. We at STH decided with permission of a select few we work with, to document their journeys and story’s so our followers and the public can see what addiction/homelessness and more importantly RECOVERY truly means. We have been delighted with the response of our followers, the encouragement our guys have received has been incredible. The guys who’s stories we have followed have said how much all the kind and encouraging comments they have received has blown them away. From feeling like they had no one, no support and no way out, to find they have a community backing them all the way has urged them on even more. STH wanted to start to build a community, a togetherness 🙏🏻❤️. A foundation that’s built on love, compassion, support and care, with no judgment or unkindliness will get results🙏🏻❤️. No one gets well when having their self esteem taken away, no one gets well when they feel not part off and cut off from their community. STH would like to thank all our followers for their support, love and encouragement they have shown when following peoples journeys.

forms.office.com

BUSC ❤️✨ you da best 🫶

BUSC was delighted to welcome our partner Primary School Headteachers to Albyn Park this morning.

BUSC on the back of this meeting is delighted to announce our strategic partnership with Broxburn PS, Dedridge PS, Kirkhill PS, Pumpherston and Uphall PS, St Nicholas PS and Uphall PS.

This will focus on BUSC supporting each school with various curriculum and after school activities which also includes the ongoing support of our BUSC Youth worker James Pegg who is now resident in each school (half day per week) throughout the academic year.

The strategic relationship has included the agreement on our "Broxburn Model" as a C.O.R.E (Character, Ownership, Relationships, Excellence) framework to work with each of our partner schools and links directly to the GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) policy as laid out by the Scottish Government.

We are proud of the very positive relationship we have with the schools and we will be working closely with Broxburn Academy and our friends at Active schools to support an aligned relationship.

We spent this morning planning all our Extra Time activity for the 26-27 academic year, the ongoing support of our Youth worker James Pegg in each of the schools and the planning of our upcoming World Cup Primary Schools festival on the 24th June before the Scotland v Brazil fixture.

All of the work we do with our school partners could not be carried out with the support of the SFA Extra Time and Summer of Football programme, The Gannochy Trust, The Rooco Trust, Active West Lothian, West Lothian Council, Active Schools and the Scottish Government.

Gareth McKenna BUSC COO said " We are thrilled to confirm our strategic relationship with our partner primary schools. The huge amount of work carried out by the Headteachers, school staff and complemented by our own BUSC staff ensures we can further support the development of young people in our community. I genuinely want to thank our funding partners who give us the platform to develop and deliver many different initiatives for young people in our community"