Leeds psychiatrist takes up role as autism national champion

A consultant psychiatrist from Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will play a key role in improving mental health services for people with autism across the country.

Dr Conor Davidson, who is Clinical Lead for the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service, has been appointed the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ new Autism National Champion, and will take up the role alongside his day job.

As the lead psychiatrist for autism in the UK, he will be responsible for speaking up and advocating for autistic patients, both within the College and the wider profession of psychiatry.

“My mission taking on the role is to ensure that every psychiatrist in the country sees autism as their business.” Dr Davidson says.

“There is much more interest in autism now then when I started in the profession 16 years ago. However we hear from patients that it’s still a mixed picture when it comes to accessing health services. Some clinicians have a really good understanding of autism and others not so much.

“There have been many achievements within this post already. My predecessor has done a lot of great work to raise the profile of autism within the College, develop a nationwide programme of training for psychiatrists, and campaign for improved services, so I’m hoping to build on the work that he and others have done.”

Dr Davidson will undertake the role on a voluntary basis for an initial period of two years, while continuing his work with the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service (LADS).

“I’d like to see every psychiatrist engaging in autism training and development activities, and for there to be more autism content in the psychiatric training curriculum. There’s still progress to be made in terms of the availability and accessibility of services for those with autism so there is plenty of work to do.

“The reason I applied for this role was to continue what I do at LADS helping autistic people, but to do this on a broader scale. I’m hoping that by taking on the role of Autism National Champion that I can improve psychiatrists’ knowledge and understanding and therefore improve mental health services for autistic people and their families.”

About the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service

The Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service (LADS) provides assessment and diagnosis of people of all intellectual ability who may have autism and live in Leeds. The assessment is provided by a team of mental health and learning disability professionals with specialist knowledge of autism.

Referrals are accepted from healthcare professionals and also directly from individuals (self-referral) who would like an autism assessment. We are happy to receive referrals for all adults over the age of 18 years regardless of their IQ. This includes people who also have a learning disability or other developmental conditions.

If autism is diagnosed, all service users are offered a one off follow up appointment where guidance and advice is provided. 

The team also provide training and development for neighbouring NHS organisations and deliver autism masterclasses to local authority professionals.

You can find out more about the service on the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust website.