Conversation with an adult with features of autism spectrum disorder in secure forensic care

Abstract

This chapter focuses on an interaction which takes place in a medium secure psychiatric hospital between a forensic speech and language therapist (FSLT), M, and a male, H, in his early 20s, whom she works with. H is a patient detained under the Mental Health Act (Department of Health, 2007) who, at the time of recording, had been resident in the secure hospital for almost three years. H has a diagnosis of moderate learning disability and also presents with features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Prior to the recording of the conversation, the interactants had worked together for two years, always in the same setting and always on themes surrounding H’s offending behaviours and the beliefs underlying these, hence the two had a well-established relationship and were both familiar with the context in which the interaction takes place.