Treating Autism, a charity run entirely by parents, provides information and support to families and individuals affected by autism with the aim of improving their quality of life and reducing disabling symptoms of autism.

Treating Autism is a membership society, although non-members can access many of the services and support we provide for free. (Read about full benefits of joining as a member.)

We run local autism support groups across the United Kingdom that provide often-isolated parents a chance to meet and exchange information and experiences with other parents in similar situation. Our support groups are free to attend and often feature a talk by a local practitioner or a parent, who will share their knowledge or personal experience of a particular treatment or therapy that has helped their child.

Our conferences do the same, as well as offering cutting edge information on treatment. Of course, we provide to any interested member of the public this website and all its contents. Treating Autism also creates and publishes information booklets and documents that are provided, free of charge, to the wider community, including other organisations, members of government bodies, and medical and research professionals.

Our charity also runs an active Facebook community, a Twitter feed, and is a proud member of the Autism Collaboration whose members include Autism Research Institute (ARI), Autism One, Generation Rescue, National Autism Association, SafeMinds, Schafer Autism Report, Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) and Unlocking Autism.

We foster relationships between researchers and clinicians in the field so that they can advance the scientific agenda and treatments for disabling symptoms of autism, as well as comorbid and underlying medical conditions, to the benefit of all people and families affected by autism. To this end we have established the Treating Autism Researchers and Clinicians Network (TARC)

Lastly, we run advocacy campaigns and liaise with policy makers and service providers to improve standards of health care for people with autism. We are the only UK autism charity that focuses on addressing and removing the barriers to appropriate medical care for people with autism, which has been identified as the key problem and one of the major contributors to high stress and poor quality of life of both people with autism and their parents and carers. Our publication on recognising and addressing comorbid and underlying health problems in autism has been well received and disseminated throughout the UK and wider, and has been translated into several languages.

TA has helped our family more than anything else. Our son faced terrible problems with his bowel and allergies, and attending TA conferences has allowed us access to the information we needed to help him. The new comorbidities pamphlet is also helping doctors and health professionals better understand the emerging science around autism and the need to explore the health challenges our children face.
(parent’s feedback)

Treating Autism has literally been a lifeline for our family, providing much needed information to help make our autism kids lives be the best they can be. The conferences are particularly inspiring and informative and have given us direction and a feeling of empowerment and community in what can often feel like a very isolated existence. It helps to give us the strength to keep calm and carry on finding out answers and supporting our fellow autism families
(parent’s feedback)

Treating Autism provide a valuable service for parents and for the community. As yet we do not know what the pathophysiology of autism is, and therefore it is important that we explore every possibility that it is a preventable and/or treatable condition. Treating Autism provides such advocacy and there is little doubt their Co-Morbidities document has made a substantial impact on the standard of care patients with autism receive and indeed their efforts are visible within current NICE guidelines. Preventing a non-verbal patient suffering unnecessary pain is such an important contribution to society.
Clinical Researcher, UoM