Blog: Neurodivergent Patients are Dying – and What We’re Doing About It

Categorized in: Neuroinclusive Healthcare Blog Posted on: Last updated on: Written by:

Mel Houser, M.D., Executive Director, All Brains Belong VT (9/20/2023

Click here for Plain Language Summary

Neurodivergent patients are dying. The life expectancy for an Autistic adult is 36-54 years, with premature cardiovascular disease and suicide as leading causes.1-3 ADHD adults are 4 times more likely to die prematurely.4

When I learned this, I flipped my lid. I was 37, and had just learned that I was Autistic/ADHD myself. I was then the parent of a 4 year old Autistic child.

So that’s what drove me to start All Brains Belong VT – a nonprofit working to improve health and belonging for neurodivergent people. We do this through medical care, social connection, and neurodiversity related education.

All Brains Belong serves people who feel neglected and misunderstood by The System. We create spaces for people to show up as their true selves within a community of people who “get it.” And in so doing, they transform their futures. Because now they know what’s possible.

Above is a video clip from a webinar we gave last night about our “Everything is Connected to Everything: Improving the Healthcare of Autistic Adults” resource as well as details of All Brains Belong’s novel model for healthcare delivery. If you missed it, you can sign up to receive the recording when it goes out next week.

If you, too, are distressed by the status quo of healthcare for neurodivergent people, please consider supporting our work in any of the following ways:

Together, we can change the story of neurodivergent health.

References

  1. Guan J, Li G. Injury mortality in individuals with autism. American Journal of Public Health. 2017;107(5):791-793. 
  2. Hirvikoski T, Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Boman M, Larsson H, Lichtenstein P, Bölte S. Premature mortality in autism spectrum disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry. 2016;208(3):232-8.
  3. South M, Costa AP, McMorris C. Death by suicide among people with autism: beyond zebrafish. 2021;4(1):e2034018.
  4. Søren Dalsgaard, Søren Dinesen Øtergaard, James F Leckman, Preben Bo Mortensen, Marianne Giørtz Pedersen. Mortality in children, adolescents, and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a nationwide cohort study. The Lancet, 2015; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61684-6