Dr. Tara Chandrasekhar on Adult Autism for the Community Psychiatrist

<p>Guest: Dr. Tara Chandrasekhar is a psychiatrist and Associate Professor at Duke University School of Medicine, where she directs the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship. Her work focuses on supporting autistic people across the lifespan — especially during the transition to adulthood — and helping clinicians provide neurodiversity-affirming care. Through her clinical work, teaching, and research, Dr. Chandrasekhar is passionate about improving how we understand and support autistic adults in healthcare, education, and everyday life.</p><p><br></p><p>Host: Anish Dhamija, MD, MS is Board-Certified in both Psychiatry and Family Medicine, completing residency training at UC San Diego in 2022. He attended the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University from 2022-2023 and also served as Clinical Director of the Crisis Team and 988 Headquarters in Westchester County, New York. His current position is as the Director of Behavioral Health at an FQHC by the border of San Diego and Mexico, where he works in an integrated care setting closely with primary care. He lives in San Diego with his wife and young child.</p><p><br></p><p>Autism Resources:</p><ul><li><p>General: <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/neurodiversity/ndrd.html" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://med.stanford.edu/neurodiversity/ndrd.html</a></p></li><li><p>For healthcare appts: <a href="https://autismandhealth.org/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"><strong>https://autismandhealth.org/</strong></a></p></li><li><p><a href="" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"><strong>Employment training: https://www.neurodiversityhub.org/</strong></a></p></li><li><p>Disability Resources: Employment, Voc Rehab, Education <a href="https://www.ndrn.org/about/ndrn-member-agencies/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.ndrn.org/about/ndrn-member-agencies/</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://autisticadvocacy.org/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://autisticadvocacy.org/</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mgA6Rdj5TdFfs7Lc6FDnzeJi5A7XO2SD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114133879698261021252&rtpof=true&sd=true" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Podcast Notes</a></p></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Editor: Raquel Nunez, a medical doctor from Venezuela, has seen how social and economic hardships deeply affect mental health. These experiences shaped her approach to psychiatry, teaching her that the most meanin