August 7, 2026 • 6 mins
There are beliefs that the latest autism figures better reflect society, with less people going un-diagnosed.
An Otago University study has found autism rates have tripled over the past 15 years, with nearly 31,000 people diagnosed during the study period.
That's 1.3% of kiwi kids, and 0.14% of adults.
Autism New Zealand Chief Executive Dane Dougan told Heather du Plessis-Allan that a diagnosis opens the door for support.
He says talking to people who've been diagnosed later in life is a significant, and helps them understand why the world seems different for them.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Either due to Clan.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Nine two nine news in next number, standard text fee
app life get that out of our system earlier.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Now you are not imagining it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Autism diagnoses are in fact becoming more commonplace. In the
last fifteen years, diagnoses of the neurodivergence has tripled. Now
one point three percent of key we kids and zero.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Point one four percent of adults have the disorder. Dane
Dougan is the CEO of Autism New Zealand. Hi, Dane, Hey,
you either think you have met mate, It's good to
talk to you. Why is it tripled?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We believe it's for a few reasons.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
One, the diagnosis criteria got redefined sort of in the
last ten years, which we think has been more positive
because it has allowed for both autism and ADHD to
be diagnosed in the same person, whereas prior to that
it wasn't able to be done, and we know that
there can be quite a significant overlap between those two diagnosises.
There is better awareness out there as well, so the
work that we've done in other organizations around creating better
(00:53):
witness around autism has created more understanding of it, which
has led to a greater number of people being diagnosed,
and obviously there is a genetic link as well. So
a lot of the time you get someone in your
family diagnosed and you look at other people in your
family and then they might go as well and get
diagnosed too, which increases the number of people.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So we think it's threefold. That's we're pretty confident.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
There's the reasons why, and these figures actually do reflect
what we see in the community.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
We think there's been significantly underdiagnosed in the past, so
this is actually probably a bit more realistic in terms
of the numbers.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What's the point in getting a diagnosis?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it's a good question, so twofold.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Really, I guess one, you can't actually be assessed for
support until you have a diagnosis or something currently, and
then the process is you get diagnosed, and then you
go get your needs assessed, and then iffec's assessed needing support,
then you're going to get support. So that's the first
big thing that opens the door for support, which I
think is really important. The second thing is it creates
a lot of self awareness and people. So I talked
(01:51):
to a lot of adults who have been diagnosed later
in life and it's been a really significant day in
their life because it's helped understand why the world has
worked the way it has.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
For them potentially not better or worse, just different.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And it's helped them be able to understand themselves to
be able to move forward in life in a more
positive way.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I don't want to I'm going to play the devil's
advocate here, so please don't think that I'm one of
those people who is like, I don't believe in diagnoses,
but I'm going to ask these questions. Okay, are when
they do it? When when adults get it and it
gives them self awareness and they go, oh, I behave
like that because I'm a little bit autistic. Is that
just them making excuses for themselves or are they able
to use that to actually manage what's going on?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So one, it's actually still a pretty vigorous process. So
it's not that easy to get diagnosed. Despite these figures,
it's still hard. We do run a diagnosis clinic in
Wellington and we focus in on very young and adults
because it's eventually impossible for adults to get diagnosed through
the public system and it's not an easy process to
get actually diagnosed.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It is actually quite thorough one. Two. What it does
do it can help those strategies.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
So what we talk a lot about is, yes, once
you've had a diagnosis, yes we can help you understand
yourself and look at.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Your own behaviors.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But also it helps an employment For example, there's small
things you can do. If you're an adult in your
work and you've been diagnosed late and you've been struggling
in employment, there's things that we can do as employers
to help support that person to create a better environment
for them to be successful. So it is really important
from that perspective because we want people.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Out there working. A lot of our community want to work.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
It's just small sort of changes and the support's not
necessarily significant, so it can be quite small, reasonable sort
of changes that can make a big difference in those
people's lives. Yeah, what kind of support, Well, there's things
like they may need to go to psychologists psychiatrists to
talk it through. Then in an employment setting, it could
be things like, look, doesn't matter if thing goes to work,
(03:38):
we're in shorts every day if he's not seeing clients,
is that a problem, because there could be a century
issue for somebody who has to be shorts to work
rather than lungs. It's putting the person not next to
the water cooler where people may be talking.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
All that that's not a thing, now, is it.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
But putting them in a quiet part of the office
where people aren't talking as much and all that kind
of stuff just to make or if that, to wear headphones,
Is that a problem? Like, it's understanding that person's need,
putting a plan in place for that person's need to
be successful. Actually helped about one hundred and eighty odd
autistic adults over the last few years inte employment.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now, these people were perfectly capable of working.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It was just understanding what it meant to go through
an interview process, Understanding what I'm meant to get a
CV together, understanding what it means to work in a
large organization, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
What is the point at which you go from just
being I don't know, and I don't really know what
the correct vernacular is, so just excuse me for sounding
completely uninformed here. At what point do you go from
just being a normal adult who just is on this,
like you know, has all the same stuff, to crossing
over and then actually being autistic Because we all suffer
(04:35):
from the same things. Right, We all get sensory overload
from time to time, we all kind of find it
a bit awkward occasionally to interact with other people. So
where does it go from being normal to not?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
One, well it's not a point in time, so you've
had it for your whole life, number one. But number two,
it's just when it becomes a better understanding of those
sort of you know.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What I mean is what I mean is everybody, everybody
sits along the spectrum somewhere, right, So at what point
does the very thing that we all deal with go
from being a normal amount of kind of you know,
not handling sensory overload to all of a sudden, Okay,
you're at this, You're you're so far along the spectrum
you're autistic.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah. Yeah, So while someone describes this to me once
and I thought was really good, Autism is essentially a
bunch of behaviors that are grouped together. Any one of
those behaviors and on their own might not mean you're autistic,
but if it's a group of them, it may. So again,
it's not one thing or one point. But if we
are talking about century overload, for example, the way that
you and I might handle that, we can probably still
go on with our daily life, whereas if you're an
(05:29):
autistic person, it could be so overwhelming that you need
to go home and lie down.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
For the next day.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So those type of things is where it kind of
flips over. I guess and I don't. I'm not saying
flip over. It's not quite as simple as that, but
obviously it's how like ye when you when you hear
a noise and it gets really annoying you and I
will just say that's that's that's that's kind of frustrated,
and then we'll just take it out of our mind,
whereas an autistic person can't necessarily do that.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And that's the difference.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
It's how you act to some of those issues and
some of those things that are happening in the workplace
or in school or wherever.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Hey, stuff, Dan, Thanks very much for talking us through
to appreciate it is Dane Dougan who's with autism and
ZED the CEO.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
There for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live
to news talks that'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Either due to Clan.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Nine two nine news in next number, standard text fee
app life get that out of our system earlier.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Now you are not imagining it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Autism diagnoses are in fact becoming more commonplace. In the
last fifteen years, diagnoses of the neurodivergence has tripled. Now
one point three percent of key we kids and zero.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Point one four percent of adults have the disorder. Dane
Dougan is the CEO of Autism New Zealand. Hi, Dane, Hey,
you either think you have met mate, It's good to
talk to you. Why is it tripled?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We believe it's for a few reasons.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
One, the diagnosis criteria got redefined sort of in the
last ten years, which we think has been more positive
because it has allowed for both autism and ADHD to
be diagnosed in the same person, whereas prior to that
it wasn't able to be done, and we know that
there can be quite a significant overlap between those two diagnosises.
There is better awareness out there as well, so the
work that we've done in other organizations around creating better
(00:53):
witness around autism has created more understanding of it, which
has led to a greater number of people being diagnosed,
and obviously there is a genetic link as well. So
a lot of the time you get someone in your
family diagnosed and you look at other people in your
family and then they might go as well and get
diagnosed too, which increases the number of people.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So we think it's threefold. That's we're pretty confident.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
There's the reasons why, and these figures actually do reflect
what we see in the community.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
We think there's been significantly underdiagnosed in the past, so
this is actually probably a bit more realistic in terms
of the numbers.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What's the point in getting a diagnosis?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it's a good question, so twofold.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Really, I guess one, you can't actually be assessed for
support until you have a diagnosis or something currently, and
then the process is you get diagnosed, and then you
go get your needs assessed, and then iffec's assessed needing support,
then you're going to get support. So that's the first
big thing that opens the door for support, which I
think is really important. The second thing is it creates
a lot of self awareness and people. So I talked
(01:51):
to a lot of adults who have been diagnosed later
in life and it's been a really significant day in
their life because it's helped understand why the world has
worked the way it has.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
For them potentially not better or worse, just different.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And it's helped them be able to understand themselves to
be able to move forward in life in a more
positive way.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I don't want to I'm going to play the devil's
advocate here, so please don't think that I'm one of
those people who is like, I don't believe in diagnoses,
but I'm going to ask these questions. Okay, are when
they do it? When when adults get it and it
gives them self awareness and they go, oh, I behave
like that because I'm a little bit autistic. Is that
just them making excuses for themselves or are they able
to use that to actually manage what's going on?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So one, it's actually still a pretty vigorous process. So
it's not that easy to get diagnosed. Despite these figures,
it's still hard. We do run a diagnosis clinic in
Wellington and we focus in on very young and adults
because it's eventually impossible for adults to get diagnosed through
the public system and it's not an easy process to
get actually diagnosed.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It is actually quite thorough one. Two. What it does
do it can help those strategies.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
So what we talk a lot about is, yes, once
you've had a diagnosis, yes we can help you understand
yourself and look at.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Your own behaviors.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
But also it helps an employment For example, there's small
things you can do. If you're an adult in your
work and you've been diagnosed late and you've been struggling
in employment, there's things that we can do as employers
to help support that person to create a better environment
for them to be successful. So it is really important
from that perspective because we want people.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Out there working. A lot of our community want to work.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
It's just small sort of changes and the support's not
necessarily significant, so it can be quite small, reasonable sort
of changes that can make a big difference in those
people's lives. Yeah, what kind of support, Well, there's things
like they may need to go to psychologists psychiatrists to
talk it through. Then in an employment setting, it could
be things like, look, doesn't matter if thing goes to work,
(03:38):
we're in shorts every day if he's not seeing clients,
is that a problem, because there could be a century
issue for somebody who has to be shorts to work
rather than lungs. It's putting the person not next to
the water cooler where people may be talking.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
All that that's not a thing, now, is it.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
But putting them in a quiet part of the office
where people aren't talking as much and all that kind
of stuff just to make or if that, to wear headphones,
Is that a problem? Like, it's understanding that person's need,
putting a plan in place for that person's need to
be successful. Actually helped about one hundred and eighty odd
autistic adults over the last few years inte employment.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now, these people were perfectly capable of working.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It was just understanding what it meant to go through
an interview process, Understanding what I'm meant to get a
CV together, understanding what it means to work in a
large organization, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
What is the point at which you go from just
being I don't know, and I don't really know what
the correct vernacular is, so just excuse me for sounding
completely uninformed here. At what point do you go from
just being a normal adult who just is on this,
like you know, has all the same stuff, to crossing
over and then actually being autistic Because we all suffer
(04:35):
from the same things. Right, We all get sensory overload
from time to time, we all kind of find it
a bit awkward occasionally to interact with other people. So
where does it go from being normal to not?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
One, well it's not a point in time, so you've
had it for your whole life, number one. But number two,
it's just when it becomes a better understanding of those
sort of you know.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What I mean is what I mean is everybody, everybody
sits along the spectrum somewhere, right, So at what point
does the very thing that we all deal with go
from being a normal amount of kind of you know,
not handling sensory overload to all of a sudden, Okay,
you're at this, You're you're so far along the spectrum
you're autistic.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah. Yeah, So while someone describes this to me once
and I thought was really good, Autism is essentially a
bunch of behaviors that are grouped together. Any one of
those behaviors and on their own might not mean you're autistic,
but if it's a group of them, it may. So again,
it's not one thing or one point. But if we
are talking about century overload, for example, the way that
you and I might handle that, we can probably still
go on with our daily life, whereas if you're an
(05:29):
autistic person, it could be so overwhelming that you need
to go home and lie down.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
For the next day.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So those type of things is where it kind of
flips over. I guess and I don't. I'm not saying
flip over. It's not quite as simple as that, but
obviously it's how like ye when you when you hear
a noise and it gets really annoying you and I
will just say that's that's that's that's kind of frustrated,
and then we'll just take it out of our mind,
whereas an autistic person can't necessarily do that.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And that's the difference.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
It's how you act to some of those issues and
some of those things that are happening in the workplace
or in school or wherever.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Hey, stuff, Dan, Thanks very much for talking us through
to appreciate it is Dane Dougan who's with autism and
ZED the CEO.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
There for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live
to news talks that'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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