A new state plan that brings autism to the forefront has given the disability much-needed recognition, and it will be up to the culture of Michigan to determine how the plan will affect real people, an author of the plan said.
The Michigan Department of Community Health and the Michigan Autism Council released the Michigan Autism Spectrum Disorders Plan last week in advance of Autism Awareness Month in April. The plan was warranted because of recent legislation providing insurance coverage for autism treatment, and because the condition is on the rise, said Dr. Mary Sharp, advocacy and community development officer for the Autism Alliance of Michigan and an author of the plan. The incidence of the behavioral disorder now is one in 88 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or 50,000 people in Michigan including 16,000 in schools, according to a state news release.
Midlander Trisha Fenbys 13-year-old daughter, Hollie Kayden, is one of those 16,000 students. Fenbys goals for her daughter arent much different from those of other parents: to give Hollie the tools to have a meaningful life and a decent job. But Hollie is struggling, her mother said. She began in regular education, but now is in a middle school classroom for children with autism. Fenby doesnt believe Hollie has received enough of the therapy she needs to keep her functioning appropriately as she grows. Hollie has begun modeling inappropriate behaviors of some of the children around her.
Fenby knows Hollie probably wont be a Bill Gates or an Albert Einstein, but she doesnt want her to be trapped in a job as, say, a department-store greeter. She doesnt want Hollie to spend her adult life in a group home with aides helping her around the clock.
Theres so much focus on early intervention; they forget about people Hollies age, she said.
A spokesperson at the Midland County Educational Services Agency, which provides autism services, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fenby is contacting other parents to see if they can band together to sculpt a future that meets their goals for their children.
We need to be the trailblazers, she said. We need to make this happen because our kids are adults before we know it.
The plan calls for the state to build a comprehensive lifelong support structure for people with autism and their families. It calls for coordination of services, partnerships between state and local agencies, early screening, help getting people with autism and their families involved in their communities and use of well-researched, or evidence-based, practices in diagnosis and treatment. Its this last tenet of the plan that excites Sharp, because it means treatment providers wont simply be able to do what their mentors taught them to do, or what theyve always done. It means residential-care providers and community-living staff members no longer will be able to get by without education in autism treatment.
I think that the plan is really an extraordinary document, she said. It is beautifully referenced, unlike most other states documents.
Read more from the original source:
Parents hope new state autism plan helps children toward their goals