Findings Raise Concerns About Path to Autism Early Intervention

A new study from researchers at Autism Speaks shows improvement towards universal early screening for autism. The report, published online today in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, also found that few approaches to early detection, such as screening during well-child visits, were evaluated to understand their impact on early diagnosis and access to services.

New Autism Rules in Pennsylvania Has Some Paying for Once Free Services

PITTSBURGH – Parents of children with autism are protesting new rules that took effect Monday in Pennsylvania, which will require parents at certain income levels to partially pay for services that used to be free.
Nicki Gratton, of Plum, is one of them. She has three children. Jeremy has cerebral palsy and Riley has pervasive developmental disorder, which is a type of autism.
Gratton told KDKA-TV’s Dr. Maria Simbra that three home visits per week to help her with her children’s behavior issues have “been a God-send.”

Province Provides Housing for Autistic Teen

Miles Kirsh

There's hope in Canada.

Miles Kirsh will not be homeless next week.
The provincial ombudsman’s office has assured Donna Kirsh that Ontario’s social services ministry is working to find a way to keep her 19-year-old autistic son in respite care until funding for permanent group home care is available.

Editorial: Autism and the Budget Crisis

The prevalence of autism is continuing to rise, with an increasing number of families facing the reality that there will be cuts to both services and programs affecting people with autism unless we all take action. Tax revenues continue to decline during the current economic woes and the budget reserves are drained. Most states in America are proposing sweeping and deep budget cuts that will affect families through reductions in services that are proven and needed.

The cuts that are proposed are coming at a time when the experience of autism has become a national health care crisis, something that affects every single community in the nation. The current delivery system for services is often times unresponsive, ineffective, inefficient, and inappropriate where provision of quality and seamless services over a person with autism’s lifespan is concerned. The evidence is particularly noticeable in the adult services sector.

Candidate Has Personal Reason to Run

Elizabeth Emken and her son, Alex.

DANVILLE, Calif. -- Elizabeth Emken lives on a leafy cul-de-sac in Danville with her husband of 26 years, their two daughters, their English springer spaniel, and their son, Alex.
"What's your birthday?" Alex asked. I gave him the date. He thought for an instant and put it into context that has meaning to him: " 'Mickey Mouse Club, Circus Day.' 'Up a Tree.' 'Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.' "
They're all Walt Disney productions, vintage 1955, the year I was born. Done with me, he asked two other visitors for the dates of their birth. "Old Yeller," he said of one. "Sign of Zorro," he said of the other.
He is why Elizabeth Emken has embarked on a quixotic campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Many of Emken's positions come from the Republican playbook, and that places her at odds with other parents who similarly are enmeshed in the issue. On this point, they agree: "We're not addressing autism as the public health emergency it is."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/22/4430762/candidate-has-a-personal-reason.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/22/4430762/candidate-has-a-personal-reason.html#storylink=cpy

Opinion: New York's Role in Treating Autism

From The Albany Times Union, a column by Dr. Terry Hamlin, chief of staff at The Center for Discovery in Harris, Sullivan County, and head of the Discovery School for children with autism.

The numbers released late last month by the Centers for Disease Control showing a significant increase in the prevalence of autism among children are sure to cause alarm and controversy. With 1 in every 88 children now being diagnosed with autism, we are confronted with what amounts to an epidemic and the greatest public health threat to our children, outpacing obesity and diabetes.
However, with obesity and diabetes, at least we know the general causes, we have good medical diagnostics and measures and we can formulate viable solutions. But with autism, we are mostly in the dark. We have yet to ascertain its origins. There there is no real consensus as to whether autism is one of nature versus nurture — genetic or environmental — or a combination of both.
The only thing that educators and service providers agree on is that there is a growing population of very different children in our schools and in our communities who require very different supports from what we have available, especially for the more severely affected.