Dec 14, 2018, Worcester (MA) Business Journal: Behavioral Concepts adds Springfield office http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20181214/NEWS01/181219959/1002 Worcester-based Behavioral Concepts, which provides care to patients with autism, is adding a Springfield office next month. BCI, which also has an office in Fitchburg, is expanding to Western Massachusetts with early-intervention services for children up to age 3 and applied behavior analysis services for children over 3. The agency's 7,200 square-foot space will have the capacity to serve 30 to 45 children. Autism care has become a larger need in the medical and educational communities as the rates of diagnosed cases has soared in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism spectrum disorder is now believed to affect 1 in 59 children nationally age 8 or older. Just this year, a $20-million school for autistic children was proposed for Worcester's Lincoln Square, and Westborough Behavioral Healthcare Hospital expanded with a new autism inpatient care unit it said is the first of its kind in the state, with a capacity of up to 152 beds. Acquisitions have also been more common, including Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, an operator of centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, taking over the former Durham School in Fitchburg to serve as a day school for students with autism and other disabilities. …
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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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