New Autistic Health and Human Services Support Group

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I am a current M1 medical student at Medical College of Wisconsin with Asperger’s Syndrome who is seeking to form a local (and potentially expanded) organization of health/human services (HHS) professional students (e.g. MD, SLP, LCSW), post-graduate in-training practitioners (e.g. medical residents), and fully-licensed practitioners who identify as being on the autism spectrum. I would prefer as many of my initial contacts as possible be from the greater Milwaukee and/or Chicago metropolitan areas, but if you're further away I'll see if you could be included as the organization potentially expands.

Although I feel med school life is wonderful, I still have a sense of loneliness in not being able to relate to another going through exactly the same thing as an autistic. I realize that many other autism spectrum students and practitioners who are often alone in a similar position as I am in my medical school class may also not feel able to effectively relate their life experiences to peers and faculty in order to inspire positive change. However, together we as an autistic professional community share the same rapport of choosing to directly help people through socially intensive fields despite often stepping well outside our own social comfort zones. Therefore, I am seeking to organize community of HHS professional students and practitioners so that we may build community and combine our talents/experiences to better serve the greater autistic population.

The organization formed will be preliminarily be named Organization of Autistic Health and Human Services Professionals (OAHHSP) and its mission statement is preliminarily listed as follow:

1) Provide networking via local and/or regional support groups for autism spectrum health and human services professional students, post-graduate in-training practitioners, and fully licensed practitioners.

2) Enhance responsible autism science dedicated to improve quality of life issues by forging stronger partnerships between the autistic community and the health sciences/human services research communities (e.g. establishment of autistic adult advisory panels), as well as advocating for policy changes for research priorities and service delivery.

3) Address sensory, communication, and other barriers to effective clinical care/social services for autism spectrum children and adults.

4) Educate current and future health/human services practitioners (i.e. our peers in professional school) in the practical aspects of effectively interacting with autism spectrum colleagues and interdisciplinary team members, as well as dispelling mainstream misperceptions of the greater autistic community’s characteristics.

5) Reduce educational and employment disparities in the autism spectrum population, with the additional goal of encouraging more talented autism spectrum high school and university students to consider and pursue health/human services professional careers.

To this end, I hope to seek out and recruit prospective autism spectrum members from both the health sciences undergraduate/post-graduate programs as well as any potential known practitioner who is on the autism spectrum from local communities. Health/human services professions sought include but are not limited to: MD, DO, RN, NP, SLP, PsyD, OT, PT, PA, and LCSW. It is my wish that all of us autism spectrum individuals could organize and utilize our talents to further advocate for greater autistic community input in health sciences/human services research and delivery.

If interested, please PM me and let me know where you go to school and/or practice your field and what role you're interested in for the group's formation.

Thank you for your time and consideration.