Krista Johnston, PhD

Part 1: Need for anxiety treatment, Barriers for families and clinicians, and treatment using CBT

Part 2: Comparison of group treatment options in a real-world example

Part 3: Next steps

• Bridging the gap between research and practice
• Improving cost effectiveness for use in private practice
• Consultation, support, and training for clinicians

In this fascinating keynote presentation, Dr. Jonathan Weiss, one of Canada’s leading autism researchers, describes the individual and contextual factors that increase the likelihood of mental health problems for individuals with autism. Drawing on the research, and his extensive clinical experience, Dr. Weiss offers important insights into the ways these problems can be  alleviated by working with individuals, families, and communities.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize ways that mental health problems present in people with autism.
• Identify individuals at risk and contextual risk factors for mental health problems.
• Describe interventions to address mental health problems.

Jonathan Weiss, PhD, CPsych

This fascinating panel discussion provides positive, practical insights offered by autistic individuals, clinicians and researchers on the complex realities facing individuals with autism with mental health conditions, primarily anxiety and depression.

This panel was recorded at ACT’s 13th Annual Focus on Research Conference held in 2017- Autism & Mental Health – Looking Beyond Autism – to provide a forum to discuss common co-occurring mental health conditions with the goal of encouraging equitable access to mental health services for people with ASD across the lifespan.

Panelists:

Kenneth Binnie & Allixe Galloway: autistic adults providing their personal insights

David Worling, PhD, Registered Psychologist, Director, West Coast Child Development Group, Vancouver 

Grace Iarocci, PhD, Registered Psychologist, Professor of Psychology, Simon Fraser University

Jonathan Weiss, PhD, Registered Psychologist, Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in ASD Treatment and Care, Associate Professor of Psychology, York University

Part 1: Allixe Galloway – Impact of mental health on career and personal life

Part 2: Kenneth Binnie

Part 3: David Worling

Part 4: Q&A

• Gender identity (Start of video)
• Rates, risk, and prevention of suicide (1:53)
• Differences in mental health between individuals with ASD and the general population (3:14)
• Perspective of adults with ASD: Useful tools and therapy (7:05)
• What would you have liked your family or peers to better understand about you when you were younger? (12:08)
• What do you think is required to be an expert so that individuals with autism can become more involved? (14:09)
• First Nations communities living with ASD and the impact of inter-generational trauma (18;35)
• Thoughts on being an observer (21:34)
• Suggestions for assisting people with anxiety to engage in treatment (26:19)

This 30 minute panel discussion features researchers and clinicians discussing the adaptation of therapies for individuals with ASD, covering both practical strategies and research findings.

The discussion was recorded at ACT’s 13th Annual Focus on Research Conference which provided a forum for community professionals, researchers, individuals with autism and families to discuss co-occurring mental health conditions and consider solutions to the complex realities facing individuals with autism who rarely have ‘just autism’.

Panelists:

Jonathan Weiss, PhD – Registered Psychologist, Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders Treatment and Care Research and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University, Toronto.

Krista Johnston, PhD – Resident, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver

Dori Zener, MSW, RSW – Individual, Couple and Family Therapist, Toronto

Rashmeen Nirma, PhD – Registered Psychologist, Clinical Instructor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Pediatrics, Vancouver

Christopher Gillberg, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Director, Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre

Part 1: Jonathan Weiss, Krista Johnston & Dori Zener

Part 2: Rashmeen Nirmal & Christopher Gillberg

Part 3: Q&A – Recommendations for dealing with lack of support funding after age 19