April 22, 2019, Syracuse Post Standard: Syracuse autism clinic in limbo; kids waiting nearly 2 years for diagnoses https://www.syracuse.com/news/2019/04/syracuse-autism-clinic-in-limbo-kids-waiting-nearly-2-years-for-diagnoses.html A state-funded Syracuse clinic that diagnoses autism and other developmental disabilities in children has stopped taking new patients, leaving parents waiting nearly two years to get their kids evaluated elsewhere. The Margaret L. Williams Developmental Evaluation Center stopped taking new referrals in February because it has to vacate its space at 215 Bassett St. by Sept. 30 when its lease expires. The center, which evaluates about 300 kids a year from a 15-county area, does not have a new location yet. The center says it will complete evaluations of kids on its 7-month waiting list before it moves. … Without the evaluations, kids often cannot get the extra services they need in school such as speech and occupational therapy, according to Susan Scharoun, a psychology professor at LeMoyne College who works with parents of children with special needs…. The long wait for an evaluation is a “… waste of precious developmental time we could be using to put the child back on track,” Scharoun said. The delay comes at a time when autism diagnoses in children are soaring. The number of special education students statewide with autism grew from 6,752 in 2000 to 37,435 in 2016, a nearly six-fold increase, according to the state Education Department. Caitlin Goolden, whose 2-year-old son is on the wait list at the Margaret L. Williams center, said the center’s staff refused to answer her questions about the clinic’s future or why it stopped accepting new patients. “If something happens to the center and we can’t get in, I’m not sure where we are going to go,” said Goolden, who lives in the town of Fine in St. Lawrence County. … Syracuse needs more, not fewer, places to get development evaluations, said Meg Catanzarita, a speech pathologist at Connections….
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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.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
CHECK OUT MY SUBSTACK:
https://annedachel.substack.com/
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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