Rethinking Wellbeing for Neurodivergent Youth: Developing a Lived-Experience Framework
Tracks
Marquis - In-Person Only
| Tuesday, September 29, 2026 |
| 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM |
| Marquis Room |
Overview
Rebecca McCash, FutureTech Association Australia Incorporated
Key Learnings
1. An understanding of why many traditional wellbeing frameworks do not fully reflect the experiences, identities, and priorities of neurodivergent people.
2. Insight into how lived experience and neurodivergent leadership can reshape how wellbeing is defined, understood, and supported.
3. Practical ideas for educators, clinicians, and youth workers to design environments and programs that centre identity, belonging, strengths, and agency for neurodivergent people.
Speaker
Rebecca McCash
Founder & CEO
FutureTech Association Australia Incorporated
Rethinking Wellbeing for Neurodivergent Youth: Developing a Lived-Experience Framework
Presentation Overview
What does wellbeing actually look like for neurodivergent people?
Traditional wellbeing frameworks often struggle to capture the lived realities and priorities of neurodivergent individuals. Many measures prioritise behavioural compliance, academic performance, or the reduction of perceived deficits, rather than identity, belonging, autonomy, and strengths.
This presentation explores how a neurodivergent, lived-experience perspective can transform how we understand and support wellbeing. It introduces the FutureTech Wellbeing Framework, a lived-experience informed model developed within a neurodivergent-led organisation and co-designed with neurodivergent adults to better capture how neurodivergent people themselves define wellbeing.
Drawing inspiration from Scotland’s Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) model, alongside lived experience and program implementation, the framework identifies key indicators of neurodivergent wellbeing, including self-esteem, sense of belonging, understanding of neurodivergence, self-advocacy, interest in learning, and hopes for the future.
The framework has been embedded within interest-led community programs supporting neurodivergent youth aged 7–25, informing program design, mentor training, and evaluation. It is also informing program evaluation and emerging research collaborations exploring neurodivergent wellbeing.
This presentation will explore the limitations of traditional wellbeing frameworks, the role of lived experience in redefining wellbeing, the development and practical application of the FutureTech Wellbeing Framework, and insights emerging from its implementation in community programs.
The session offers educators, clinicians, youth workers, and service designers a practical lens for supporting neurodivergent wellbeing in ways that move beyond deficit-based approaches and centre identity, belonging, and agency.
Traditional wellbeing frameworks often struggle to capture the lived realities and priorities of neurodivergent individuals. Many measures prioritise behavioural compliance, academic performance, or the reduction of perceived deficits, rather than identity, belonging, autonomy, and strengths.
This presentation explores how a neurodivergent, lived-experience perspective can transform how we understand and support wellbeing. It introduces the FutureTech Wellbeing Framework, a lived-experience informed model developed within a neurodivergent-led organisation and co-designed with neurodivergent adults to better capture how neurodivergent people themselves define wellbeing.
Drawing inspiration from Scotland’s Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) model, alongside lived experience and program implementation, the framework identifies key indicators of neurodivergent wellbeing, including self-esteem, sense of belonging, understanding of neurodivergence, self-advocacy, interest in learning, and hopes for the future.
The framework has been embedded within interest-led community programs supporting neurodivergent youth aged 7–25, informing program design, mentor training, and evaluation. It is also informing program evaluation and emerging research collaborations exploring neurodivergent wellbeing.
This presentation will explore the limitations of traditional wellbeing frameworks, the role of lived experience in redefining wellbeing, the development and practical application of the FutureTech Wellbeing Framework, and insights emerging from its implementation in community programs.
The session offers educators, clinicians, youth workers, and service designers a practical lens for supporting neurodivergent wellbeing in ways that move beyond deficit-based approaches and centre identity, belonging, and agency.
Biography
Rebecca McCash is a neurodivergent educator, speaker, and social entrepreneur working to advance neurodivergent wellbeing through lived experience and practice. She is the founder of FutureTech, a neurodivergent-led social enterprise delivering interest-led learning programs and peer mentoring for autistic and neurodivergent young people.
Rebecca works across education, research, and systems change to improve how neurodivergent people are understood and supported. She has contributed to national policy discussions including Australia’s National Autism Strategy and collaborates with researchers exploring neurodivergent wellbeing. Her work focuses on developing practical, strengths-based approaches that centre identity, belonging, and agency.
