Meeting of experts on community-based approaches to autism

Overview

There is now increasing awareness among policy makers in Member States of the South-East Asia Region that the burden of disease from learning and behavioural disorders, including autism, is substantial and leads to suffering and morbidity among affected children and families. Both quantitative information and relevant qualitative information is limited. Strengthening programme development, reporting increase in prevalence over time, augmenting services at the community level, primary and tertiary health care levels, the perceptions of communities, the diverse agencies involved, and increasing the current capacities and gaps needs to be filled. Autism related programmes should not only be developed, strengthened and expedited, but also made contextual to the environments in which they will be implemented.

With scarcity of trained rehabilitation professionals in Member States, and with the overall general objective of development of community-based approaches to the management of autism in the South-East Asia Region, a meeting of experts on community-based approaches to autism, was organized in Bangkok from 15-17 September 2010. This report covers the proceedings and recommendations made by the Experts at the meeting.