WCIT CHARITY REVIEW
AUTISTICA
08
‘Molehill Mountain’ anxiety self-management app
enhances life for autistic people
Right: The first version
of Autistica’s ‘Molehill
Mountain’ app, allowing
users to track their
worries, thoughts and
feelings and get
evidence-based tips.
Below: An Autistica
client helping test
and develop the app
alongside the charity
and King’s College
London.
If more autistic
people are able
to live better
with anxiety,
this could mean
that more
individuals are
able to enter
and stay in
education and
employment
Autistica, the UK’s leading autism research
charity, recently brought together over 1,000
autistic individuals, family members, carers and
professionals. The group agreed that effective
mental health intervention for autistic people
was the community’s top priority. accessibility barriers and allows individuals to
access it in a comfortable environment and at
a time convenient for them.
Almost 80% of autistic adults experience
mental health problems. Left untreated,
anxiety can have a devastating impact on an
individual’s education, wellbeing and health.
Despite its potential benefits, many autistic
individuals find traditional cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT) challenging. Thanks to the support of the WCIT Charity,
Molehill Mountain’s pilot app was launched in
summer 2018. Since then, almost 4,900
people have installed the app, with a current
average of 244 weekly users and 833
monthly users, and users have logged over
12,000 worries. With such positive impact
from the pilot, the next step is to launch the
first full version of the app in late 2019.
In response, Autistica partnered with King’s
College London (KCL) to develop ‘Molehill
Mountain’, the only evidence-led anxiety
self-management app created specifically for
autistic people. Molehill Mountain helps users
to explore the causes and symptoms, and to
develop the knowledge, confidence and skills
to live better with anxiety.
Molehill Mountain is a digital re-imagining of
KCL’s successful paper-based toolkit, using
CBT principles. The app, which was developed
with input from 16 autistic people, removes
The potential impact of the app is huge on
both a societal and a personal level. If more
autistic people are able to live better with
anxiety, this could mean that more
individuals are able to enter and stay in
education and employment (currently only
16% are able to find full-time work).