July 28, 2018, South Bend (IN) Tribune: Kids with autism could find residential care in South Bend https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/kids-with-autism-could-find-residential-care-in-south-bend/article_6f2a1623-aee0-5448-8c5a-a15d054688c6.html Joshua Smith is getting calls from families in other states. He said it points to the need — not just here, but in the Midwest — for the residential care that his company would provide for kids with autism and other developmental and intellectual disabilities. The beds haven’t even opened, said Smith, who’s CEO of the for-profit firm Riverbend Behavioral Health. In January, it began a small school and outpatient therapy center for autism in the same three-story building, the former Madison Center Children’s Hospital at 701 N. Niles Ave. … It would serve ages 6-21 when their behavior becomes too difficult for their families to manage — or when they are a danger to others or themselves, Smith said. Youths would stay an average of 90 to 180 days, though it could be more or fewer, while both the youth and family learn better ways to cope. DCS and juvenile justice centers could refer several of the kids. The goal would be to return the youth home, said Smith, who’d opened a similar facility in New Orleans before this…. “We really need that service,” said Joshua John Diehl, chief program officer for child and adolescent services at the nonprofit LOGAN, which works with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities…. Diehl hopes that Riverbend can serve youths with other developmental and intellectual disabilities, too. Autism has gained so much publicity and attention in recent years, that it’s hard to find support and funding for other disabilities, said Diehl, who has done academic research on autism and managed LOGAN’s autism services….
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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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