Zaynab, 21, is one of the National Autistic Society’s autistic Young Ambassadors who has signed the letter. Zaynab was admitted to an inpatient mental health hospital on her 14th birthday after self-harming and feeling suicidal. She spent the next four years in and out of multiple facilities across four regions of the UK before being discharged at the age of 18.

Zaynab was sectioned for most of her time in inpatient mental health hospitals, during which she was subjected to regular restraint, sedation and hostile treatment from staff.

Zaynab said: “I remember being restrained for up to 1.5 hours at a time and being injected twice a day with sedatives. Staff would joke about smashing me to the floor in restraint. I was terrified, especially when I went to psychiatric intensive care as other patients would attempt to attack me.

“Staff at several units were quite hostile and would punish me for self-harming. It felt like my human rights were taken away as I was not allowed to write with a pen or have bed sheets due to being so high risk. Being in an inpatient mental health hospital caused significant trauma. I have still not processed the scary, traumatic things that happened to me while I was sectioned.

“Inpatient mental health hospitals are not the right space for autistic people. They cause added systemic trauma, on top of the trauma of society not accepting our neurodivergence. We need to meet somewhere in the middle. There needs to be more robust support in the community that is physically safe and emotionally safe.”

Zaynab is at university studying human neuroscience, with a view to becoming a psychiatrist, and has started her own charity offering peer support for autistic young people, called Emotional Dysregulation Autism.

What is the National Autistic Society doing to help?

Alongside autistic people and their families, the National Autistic Society has been campaigning for better mental health support and services for autistic people for years. Autism is not a mental health condition and mental health hospitals are not the right place for the vast majority of autistic people. But autistic people can develop mental health

problems like anxiety or depression and, without the right support, can reach crisis point and be admitted to hospital. This can mean spending many months or even years in hospitals, far from their families.

Tim Nicholls, Head of Influencing and Research at the National Autistic Society, said: “The mental health system has been failing autistic people for years – this crisis cannot be allowed to continue. That’s why we’re calling on Government for urgent action to investigate the abuse and inappropriate care that continues to take place in mental health hospitals.

“Our young ambassadors, like Zaynab, have bravely shared their experiences of living in inpatient mental health hospitals and the devastating impact this can have on their lives. We continue to hear reports of poor autism understanding, abuse, overmedication, inappropriate restraint and seclusion in these settings.

“Government must do more to support autistic people. They must push ahead with reforming mental health law and provide significant funding for the autism strategy, community mental health services and the social care system, so that autistic people get the right support and don’t reach crisis in the first place. A hospital is not a home – this scandal must end now.”

Further information

• Read our news story on the Government’s Draft Mental Health Bill
• Read Alexis’ story about being “locked inside” various mental health hospitals for three years.
• Read our news story on the Government’s Building the Right Support Action Plan
• Read our information, advice and guidance about autism and mental health.