Dr. Sarah Cassidy

Research Interests:

My research focuses on understanding and preventing mental health problems, self-injury and suicidality with and for autistic people, with a number of research projects focusing on improving assessment, understanding, treatment and prevention strategies. With support from the ESRC, Autistica, the James Lind Alliance, and the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), I led an international research and policy priority setting exercise in partnership with autistic people and those who support them, to identify the top 10 autism community priorities for suicide prevention. Another strand of my research, supported by the ESRC, co-produced new validated tools to better assess depression and suicidality with and for autistic adults, to improve their access to appropriate mental health assessment and treatment. With support from NIHR-CLAHRC and Autistica, our team conducted the first Psychological Autopsy study to ascertain the rate of diagnosed and possible undiagnosed autism in those who died by suicide in the UK, and identify targets to prevent suicide in autistic people. Currently, the ESRC is supporting our team to better understand and measure self-harm in autistic adults with or without co-occurring intellectual disability. The International Society for Autism Research is currently supporting our work to develop a novel task to understand autistic adults unique pathways to self-harm. I am currently part of a team funded by NIHR Public Health Research to develop and test the first suicide prevention intervention with and for autistic adults – Autism Adapted Safety Plans. I am also part of a team funded by the Chief Science Officer in Scotland, UK, to identify the rate and risk markers for suicide in autistic people in Scotland. Other aspects of my current research aims to develop new theories to better understand why autistic people may think about, plan or attempt suicide, to inform new tailored strategies to prevent suicide with and for autistic people. I and my team have been recognised with a number of awards for our research, co-production and impact, including the National Autistic Society Professional Awards “Most Impactful Researcher” 2019, Autistica “Involvement Award” 2019, Slifka-Ritvo “Innovation in Autism Research Award” 2019, INSAR “Young Investigator Award” 2016, University of Nottingham “Rising Star – Public Engagement Award” 2019, PsyPAG “Rising Researcher Award” 2020. You can find out more about my team’s research on our project website: https://sites.google.com/view/mentalhealthinautism/home You can also follow our work on twitter: @mhautism @sarah_NottsUni