THE National Roadmap to Improve the Health and Mental Health of Autistic People was released at the end of Feb as an adjunct to the National Autism Strategy (PD 15 Jan).
The Roadmap's aim was to address the breadth of issues faced by autistic people in the Australian healthcare system, and it outlined the path to improve the physical and mental health of Australia's growing autistic population.
While pharmacists and pharmacies were not specifically mentioned in the Roadmap, many autistic people have co-occurring conditions and may need to regularly interact with pharmacies and pharmacists.
Dr Tom Tutton is the Managing Executive of the Autism Friendly team with Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), and works with organisations to facilitate better understanding and support of autistic people.
"We estimate that one in 40 people in Australia are autistic, and autistic people often have more mental and physical health challenges, and it's great to see the Roadmap acknowledge that," he told Pharmacy Daily.
After canvassing colleagues about their experiences with pharmacies, he shared with Pharmacy Daily some of the challenges autistic people may encounter, and how they could be addressed.
"It's really important to point out that we have had lots of good experiences as well as challenges, so there are some real strengths within pharmacies plus some things that we could keep working on," Dr Tutton said.
"The smaller pharmacies are really great, and we had some lovely stories from our team saying they have had good experiences, with beautiful, personalised care.
"But it's a sliding scale, and at the other end pharmacies can be almost the epitome of sensory overwhelm - they're really bright, it's chaotic and busy, it's smelly, there's tall, narrow aisles full of things everywhere.
"Those sorts of places are very, very hard, and then the section where you have to pick something up is right at the back - so you have to navigate all this to get there."
However, Dr Tutton said, there is a lot that can be done to make such environments more friendly and welcoming for autistic people.
"The hidden disability sunflower lanyard is a nice way for people to make invisible disability much more visible, and means that pharmacists can identify people quickly and know they may need a bit more time, support and understanding.
"And if pharmacies sign up, and have the sunflower on their website and doorway, it gives people more confidence that they will have their needs met."
Dr Tutton also suggested making sensory adjustments in store, so they're not so bright, less noisy, and less cluttered and busy, and perhaps having quiet pathways through to certain areas, such as prescriptions, can be helpful.
He pointed to supermarkets' "quiet hours", where the tannoy is off, the lights are dimmer, people stop stacking shelves and so on.
"If pharmacies were able to have a quiet session where people knew they could come in and it would be a little easier to access, that would facilitate people coming in to have a bit more predictability, and a calmer environment."
Click and collect can also be a useful option, he said, as it allows people to buy what they need without having to walk around the store to find it.
Autistic people communicate differently, Dr Tutton pointed out, and even those who can speak well have moments when they are stressed and may not communicate or process information as well.
Then there are autistic people who don't use verbal language and communicate in other ways.
"Pharmacists could provide clear, written instructions, for example, about how to take a particular medication, so people don't have to remember it all," he said, adding it would probably be helpful for a lot of people who might struggle with memory or planning.
"We know many of the things we talk about and recommend as part of our autistic-friendly model are good for lots of people who struggle with things like busy environments, sensory overwhelm and communication, so there's benefits for many people here."
Finally, pharmacist education and training came up as a potential area for development.
"It is clear that pharmacists do have knowledge of autism, but many want more knowledge, they want more training, they want to be able to better understand the people who come in," Dr Tutton said.
"In turn, if autistic people know that staff are trained, it would give them more confidence that they will have a better experience in pharmacies." KB
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 11 Mar 25
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