Advocacy, Self Advocacy and Autism Ranking:

Future Research

Summary of Existing Research

There is a considerable amount of high quality, peer-reviewed research on the benefits of advocacy and self-advocacy in general.

There is currently insufficient high quality, peer-reviewed research evidence to determine whether advocacy or self-advocacy are beneficial for autistic people (or their parents and carers).

However there are a number of reports Scottish Executive, 2006; National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2008) which provide best-practice guidelines on advocacy for people with complex needs, which includes autistic people. 

We believe that anyone providing advocacy for autistic people should follow those guidelines. 

Recommendations for Future Research

Future research should:

• Provide a scientific evaluation of specific advocacy programmes, to determine if they achieve the specific objectives of the programme (such as increased funding or better services) and if there are any additional benefits for the participants (such as increased self-confidence or knowledge of autism).
• Investigate successful advocacy programmes to determine the key elements that make those programmes successful for whom and under what circumstances.
• Provide a scientific evaluation of advocacy training programmes, to determine the key elements that make the training successful and appropriate to the needs of the people being trained.
• Involve autistic people at all stages in the development, running and evaluation of those studies.

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Aug 2017

Next Review

01 Nov 2023