The annual St Thomas’ Christmas Tree Festival is in full swing and Salisbury Soroptimists are regular contributors. This year our Women’s Health Group took the lead, creating a tree to raise awareness of the difficulties autistic women have in getting a diagnosis. This is because they present differently from men and often end up masking their symptoms in order to get accepted by society.
Classic autism diagnosis has been based on the symptoms typically displayed by males, so women face a challenge in being recognised and offered support.
We hope that visitors to the festival will pause and learn something from our tree.
