Fw:New autism efforts in PA

April 26, 2009

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New autism efforts in Pennsylvania

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

By: Maiken

mscott@...

Pennsylvania is seeing a lot of new energy directed toward autism. The state is

launching three new regional collaborations that will connect researchers and

service providers to support families and train professionals. That follows one

of the main recommendation of the 2004 Pennsylvania Autism Task Force. And a new

autism center is opening in town this weekend.

Listen:

About one in 150 children has autism - and advocates say new research and

treatment efforts come in response to increased need.

St. ph University also has an autism center opening in the fall, the Kinney

Center for Autism Education and Support. Executive director Rowe says

the improved resources are also a testament to the successful rallying of autism

advocates:

Rowe: Individuals who have been affected by this have been in powerful positions

to lobby for helping other families to receive services that maybe they didn’t

get and some of these people are in positions where they can financially help,

some are not, but are very active in going in and lobbying for better services

Families affected by autism often complain about long waits for diagnosis and

treatment, and fragmented services.

The Lehigh Valley Autism Resource Community Hub which opens in town this

weekend takes a comprehensive approach to treating autism by offering several

services in the same location. Rowe says in addition to making parents’

lives easier, this also helps kids who have autism:

Rowe: these children have a lot of sensory issues and putting them in a car and

then moving them from place to place is what we call a novel event, or a novel

stimulus, which means that each one of those changes in environment could

trigger a meltdown because of the sensory issues so it’s great to go to one

place and receive multiple therapies

The new center in town will provide services to 200 families.

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