Pressure on Diagnostic Services In recent years, adult autism diagnostic services have come under exceptional pressure. Referral rates have surged, far outpacing clinical capacity, and exposing systemic limitations in provision. The consequences are stark. An NHS-funded diagnostic service in Oxfordshire, for example, recently closed its waiting list after estimating that it could take until 2043 to process its backlog of over 2,000 patients. For individuals referred before 20

Over the past decade, mental health awareness campaigns have expanded significantly across the Western world. These efforts, ranging from school-based interventions to high-profile celebrity disclosures, have reduced stigma, improved mental health literacy, and encouraged help-seeking (Sampogna et al. 2017; Schomerus et al. 2012; Henderson et al. 2017). At the same time, however, reported rates of mental health conditions—including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and s