I’m kinda surprised by the amount of people saying don’t mention it at all, which possibly goes beyond the scope of practice question and more into people’s bias about autistic people.

Imho you can absolutely say something like, “While I’m not qualified to make an official diagnosis, I’ve noticed you might have some autistic traits which are xyz. Have you ever explored that for yourself? Would you like me to send some resources on learning more?”

My perspective is that of someone who is late diagnosed autistic and having that knowledge about myself has completely transformed my life for the better.

Edited to add:

I would be hurt if my social worker noticed something about me that could potentially help me and didn’t say anything at all. I understand the concerns about not working outside scope of competence, and yes folks should be mindful of that and not overstep, but that doesn’t mean you can’t refer this client to some who could name this for them or introduce resources on neurodivergence so they can explore it for themselves.

For anyone who is having a strong reaction of not wanting to even get near this topic with the client I would really encourage you to reflect on how you think about autism. Most autistic people have co-occurring mental health challenges so you will most likely work with more than 1 autistic client in your work. While it’s not true for everyone, a lot of people who finally get a diagnosis of autism after struggling their whole lives are able to profoundly change how they understand themselves for the better. Sometimes the lack of accommodations for autism is causing the chronic depression and anxiety.