Monique Botha

Interesting, useful - and welcome confirmation that I'm not alone in hating misuse of 'neurodiverse' to describe an individual!

Absolutely insane.

Labour would have purged and smeared someone like Zohran Mamdani.

Wes Streeting's politics align far more closely with Andrew Cuomo.

The lessons from Mamdani are about how to defeat both the right - and the bankrupt "centre".

Just found out my 12yo is getting recruiting ads for ICE on his school computer. “Help your country. $50k signing bonus.” Depraved and predatory

Yet another inside-out autism research headline! This time it's
"Increased prevalence of autism in the children of fibromyalgia patients," when fibromyalgia is a common co-occurring condition for autistic people, so those autistic kids' parents are likely autistic too.

DO BETTER AUTISM RESEARCHERS!

Like, shout all you want about it, you'll be given a platform because our media & government like nothing more than shitting on neurodivergent people. They will guzzle your shit faster than you can peddle it, but anyone who is actually informed can't draw the same conclusions. Its easy to uninformed

a cartoon of homer simpson is holding a newspaper that says old man yells at cloud Alt: a cartoon of homer simpson is holding a newspaper that says old man yells at cloud

I've seen once again, people who are largely uneducated, underinformed, and clearly not up to date on the science absolutely bitching about identify first language, disability pride, and community amongst autistic people and I find it more hilarious then terrifying because they are the equivalent of

Want to do a PhD in Psychology at Durham? I'm looking to supervise candidates interested in researching #PMDD and/or #neurodivergence - drop me a message to chat or discuss ideas!

Polanski is talking nonsense about wealth taxes.

The Spectator (owned by GBNews owner Paul Marshall - estimated wealth of £800 million) doesn’t like taxing wealth fairly.

I wonder how they got to this editorial decision?

Let’s tax wealth fairly, fund front line services & make hope normal again.

join.greenparty.org.uk

Every single day, labour float a new, shitty policy that primarily punishes poorer areas. That's fun 🫠 this is basically just a new and exciting way to defund universities, and slaughter ones already struggling after a decade of underfunding.

Two headlines in a row Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted dinner giving tech bosses access to UK minister Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office, watchdog finds

Why people don't trust mainstream politics is a mystery...

Absolutely incredible that Labour have been working to make Access to Work *even harder* to access, while pretending that the cuts they wanted to make to PIP were supposed to somehow help people access work.

Labour is trying to prove mental health is over-diagnosed so it can cut DWP benefits further Wes Streeting's new review into mental health and neurodivergency will be vice chaired by “the most hated doctor in Britain”, Simon Wessely

Labour is trying to prove mental health is over-diagnosed so it can cut DWP benefits further www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...

Journalists should never have to fear government retaliation for reporting on government activity, and showing up to work shouldn't result in your family being torn apart.

Mario had the right to work and report in the U.S. at the time he was arrested for livestreaming a protest in June.

He was held for over 100 days in ICE detention, and he did not have the chance to say goodbye to his family in person before being deported.

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

Today’s strike had been ruled illegitimate by a judge due to the lack of a 10 days warning. The law concedes the immediate strike in cases of striking violations of the constitution and the govt failing to protect citizens, so the unions have decided to move forward and do it regardless

Optimising general practice support for autistic adults: a realist review protocol - Systematic Reviews Background Mental and physical health conditions are more common in autistic than non-autistic people, including anxiety, depression, suicidality, gastrointestinal problems, cancer, epilepsy, and heart disease. General practice is often the first point of contact for patients, yet research has found that autistic people face barriers to healthcare, report lower satisfaction with healthcare, and have more unmet health needs than non-autistic people. This can be due to misunderstandings about the needs of autistic people, different communication styles, the clinic environment, and challenges making and getting to appointments, compounded by slow dissemination of research findings. Our aim is to find out how, why, and to what extent general practice supports autistic adults with and without intellectual disabilities (ID) throughout their lives, in order to suggest improvements to practice. Methods We will conduct a realist review which is a theory-driven systematic review. Electronic databases will be searched including MEDLINE, PsycInfo, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, Scopus, ASSIA and grey literature sources (e.g. Google Scholar). To be included articles must concern general practice, autistic adults aged 18 and over, contain information relevant to a UK setting, and be written in English. Any study design or article type may be included and articles will be assessed for relevance and rigour. In line with realist synthesis methods we will identify relevant contexts, mechanisms and outcomes and develop a programme theory to explain how, why, and when general practice optimally supports (or not) autistic adults. We will also seek to identify resources that are available for and used by general practice to support autistic adults. We will involve stakeholders in each stage of the review including autistic individuals, family members, and healthcare professionals (including general practice staff). The review will be reported in line with the RAMESES publication standards. Discussion The findings will inform guidance for i) general practice about potentially helpful adaptations to service, and ii) autistic people to help them gain the support they need. This will help to improve access to and engagement with general practice care, and thus potentially improve the health and wellbeing of autistic individuals. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42024545403.

📢 Delighted to see the protocol paper for our realist review has now been published. In this review we are looking at how general practice supports #autistic adults (or not)- when, how, & in what circumstances. This paper describes the steps we're taking (Cont. ⬇️)

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I will be accepting a PhD student for Fall 2026 in our Curriculum and Instruction program. If you are interested in autistic sociality, caregiver influence on their autistic children's development, and neurodiversity in school contexts, please get in touch!

So glad the mainstream media gave so much space to the reactionary free speech panic

That's really helped make sure the left is no longer censoring the free flow of ideas...

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

osf.io/pmtnb_v1

What a privilege to see this study out. Working with Taylor on this during my fellowship was one of the highlights!

may help to ease distress. It can be hard for people who aren't neurodivergent to conceptualise what it's like to lose yourself in masking. But for a lot of autistic people it seems to be something so heartbreakingly relatable. Autistic people are denied authenticity through discrimination

Essentially perpetual masking can make it hard to understand who you are, what you like, what your goals are or what you want across multiple domains in life, all to avoid stigma and discrimination from society. We need to change the world, but while it is changing, facilitating identity development

In our study, led by the amazing Taylor Burns, we found that masking of autistic traits may leave autistic people vulnerable to identity distress which in turn effects mental health. This means constantly adapting to neurotypical norms may make it hard for autistic people to hold on to who they are

I'm catching up with @drmbothapsych.bsky.social's fascinating, horrifying, excoriating and forensically put together talk now.

A lot of autism research really is appalling - although, crucially, there is far more humanising and constructive autism research happening now than ever before.

I'd love to know the tipping point of age and or experience where attitudes predict intentions. I also wonder whether authority scaffolding from adults (hostility, frustration, correcting) is a thing which builds up over time to change behaviour intentions to what we see in adulthood.

Two women die trying to cross Channel from France French authorities say about 100 people were attempting to reach the UK on a makeshift boat

Why did these women not simply apply for asylum in the UK using the HM Government Online Portal? BECAUSE NO SUCH THING EXISTS. Because you have to be *physically* in the UK to apply for asylum and you can't get here on a plane or ferry.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...