This practice guide, titled Peaceful, Pain Free and Dignified: palliative and end of life care for people on the autism spectrum by Jill Ferguson and Val Laurie, published by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD), is designed to inform others who provide care and support for individuals with autism in the final stages of their lives. 

The book charts the poignant story of an individual with autism who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Over the final three years of his life, he was supported by his friends, family, medical staff, as well as his Scottish Autism support team. This narrative of Peaceful, Pain Free and Dignified sensitively conveys how his physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs were met, taking into account the impact of his autism on his understanding and response to his cancer.

Jill Ferguson and Val Laurie both work for the organisation Scottish Autism, as Services Manager and Senior Autism Practitioner respectively. The national charity is focused on supporting individuals with autism, throughout the whole life journey to lead full and enriched lives and become valuable members of the community they live in.

Jill Ferguson, Services Manager, Scottish Autism said: “Given our own experiences in our roles and Scottish Autism’s wider focus to provide support to individuals throughout their whole life journey, we thought it was important to create a book which provides guidance for those involved in delivering end of life care to people who are on the spectrum.

“As the title suggests, this book was written with the intention of providing a practice guide that could inspire and support others to deliver peaceful, pain free and dignified end of life care to individuals on the autism spectrum. Our aim was to create a resource which would have been helpful to other support teams facing similar challenges in the future, and we hope it will help promote further consideration of how we can best provide services for people with autism towards the end of their lives.”

Peaceful, Pain Free and Dignified: palliative and end of life care for people on the autism spectrum is due for general release in December and can be pre-ordered from the BILD website.