Dec 6, 2018, Stuff.co.nz: Autistic patients tell Mental Health Inquiry of 'poor' treatment, long waits https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/109045512/autistic-patients-tell-mental-health-inquiry-of-poor-treatment-long-waits Autistic people with mental health issues and their families have told the Mental Health Inquiry they're waiting up to 18 months for mental health care and when they get help mental health professionals often don't understand their needs. … Many of the respondents said they struggled to get help unless they were suicidal, self-harming or in crisis and 70 per cent said mental health professionals showed a "poor" or "very poor" understanding of autism…. Long wait times were frequently reported. One respondent said they felt "let down" by hospital staff after they had to wait more than a year to get support for their loved one. A parent said their GP took 18 months to refer their pre-school aged son to a paediatrician. … An Auckland teenager diagnosed with autism, epilepsy, ADHD, dyspraxia and an intellectual disability was in a mental health unit for more than a year, despite staff at Counties Manukau DHB admitting "no-one believes that the inpatient unit is an appropriate place" for him. … Trezona said providing mental health professionals with specialised training in autism and mental health would make a big difference….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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