Thread by @AutisticDoctor

Dealing with the #COVID19 crisis when you’re autistic - some advice.

Most important: heed public health advice applicable to your region.

Public health is the medical specialty which deals with this issue and the public health doctors are the experts.

I’m not a PH doctor.

Wash your hands well & often
Cover your coughs & sneezes
Don’t touch your face

Travel restrictions
Social distancing
Self isolation if exposed

However, some of that advice to avoid #COVID_19 will impact us differently to non autistic people, and that’s what this thread is about

First the positives. We’re going to have much less trouble with social distancing than the non autistic population. In general we don’t casually touch, hug or kiss other people as much as NTs do. Staying home & avoiding people for a fortnight doesn’t fill us all with dread.

The Hirvikoski paper showed that infection was the only diagnostic category not significantly increased in the autistic population. Maybe this is the reason. Maybe we have a mortality advantage in this.

We thrive on routines, so if we work to establish a hand-washing routine for example, we’ll generally find it easy to maintain the habit. I’ve started to replace some face touching stims with soothing hand washes.

On the other hand, dealing with disrupted routines is difficult.
So is the uncertainty about the future, whether we’ll get sick, whether planned events will happen or be cancelled.
Things are changing daily and it’s hard to keep up.

However, we face significant barriers in accessing healthcare, which impact on our outcomes. Some of the changes to how healthcare is delivered will eventually benefit us, such as digital consultations, waiting in cars not waiting rooms, repeat prescriptions without a visit, etc

BUT, the current advice to phone your GP if you have symptoms is very difficult for us. That is the number one barrier to healthcare for #autistic people.
Please think about how you will deal with this if it becomes necessary. We avoid using the phone, so we delay getting care.

If you have symptoms which might mean #COVID2019 (fever, cough, breathing problems) you must seek help (by phone) immediately

Please make a plan for how you will do this.
Sometimes knowing it’s a risk is enough to overcome it.
Some of us will need someone else to make the call.

Plan ahead.
Will you be able to phone if necessary?
If not, who will call for you?
Have a plan before you need to use it.

If you need to self isolate, think about how you will manage.
No need to stockpile but 2 weeks supplies of food & medicines is sensible.

I was persuaded to try online grocery shopping which I’d previously avoided & it was fine. (Well, horrible because it was new, but it worked)

If you are unwell, think about who would be available to provide support or run errands?

Lots of us don’t have the social networks others rely on in times like this, so we need to look out for and support each other.
#ActuallyAutistic