Services for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systems Perspective

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

We review original research about services for adults on the autism spectrum published from January 2013 through December 2018. The main aim is to characterize the topical and methodological aspects of research about services. We review research on services related to employment, living in the community, and social participation. We compare our results with those from a similar review published in 2012 to assess progress and identify where new directions in research about services for adults with autism are needed.

Recent Findings

We found the evidence base about services for adults on the autism spectrum remains very small and highly variable in aims and methods. There is wide variability in methods used to define sampling frames and recruit participants. Most studies focus on employment. Almost no studies examine the overall ecosystem of services serving autistic adults. Few studies use a conceptual framework for understanding access to, or improvement of, services.

Summary

The small size of the extant research coupled with inconsistent quality prevents the accumulation of new knowledge in ways that would significantly inform the improvement of systems of care for the growing population of adults on the autism spectrum.

Related collections

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Michelle Kandalaft, Nyaz Didehbani, Daniel C. Krawczyk … (2012)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Paul T. Shattuck: ptshattuck@drexel.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Curr Psychiatry Rep

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Curr Psychiatry Rep

Title: Current Psychiatry Reports

Publisher: Springer US (New York )

ISSN (Print): 1523-3812

ISSN (Electronic): 1535-1645

Publication date (Electronic): 5 February 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 5 February 2020

Publication date (Print): 2020

Volume: 22

Issue: 3

Electronic Location Identifier: 13

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2181 3113, GRID grid.166341.7, A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, , Drexel University, ; Philadelphia, PA USA

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9632 6718, GRID grid.19006.3e, UCLA School of Medicine, ; Los Angeles, CA USA

Article

Publisher ID: 1136

DOI: 10.1007/s11920-020-1136-7

PMC ID: 7002329

PubMed ID: 32026004

SO-VID: ee74e4d2-8310-41a3-9d0b-4387e33c3067

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.