500,000 Teens with Autism to Join the Workforce

Proud of our friends at Aspire Accessories! Their program looks to give this population transferrable business skills by teaching light manufacturing, retail and customer service. Many people with autism are lower-mid functioning and true independent employment is not possible so thinking the statistics are even grimmer than reported.

Read the Houston Chronicle’s full article here.

Young & Old, Autistic Individuals Have Nowhere To Go

Adolescents and young adults with severe autism may still have the mental age of a child, and short-term care to stabilize those in crisis who are nonverbal or combative is practically nonexistent. Longer-term care can be almost as hard to find. It must be highly specialized, usually involving intensive behavioral therapy; someone with severe autism gets little benefit from traditional psychiatric services.

Christina Jewett’s article has all good points, but this too stands true for adults with Autism. Many people with autism have serious comorbid conditions. Autism is not just mental health it is medical – a whole body disability.

Read Kaiser Health News’ full article here.

World Autism Day

So here we are again. World Autism Day.

Not sure what that means anymore – when Tyler was diagnosed in 2004 the t-shirt I was given at my first “support walk” said 1 in 150 on the back.

What are we going to do when it is 1 in 2? Who will take care of this next generation with so many sick kids- let’s not forget diabetes, cancer, etc… is out there as well debilitating our children. Has to be environmental factors doing this. Genetic epidemics do not happen so, more than awareness, let’s get busy helping this next generation of children who will need care long after their parents are gone.

 

When Children with Autism Grow Up.

Take a look at this link. The story covers what we parents have been asking from day one – what happens when our kids with autism become adults with autism if they are not able to take care of themselves? Sad. There is a quote here that calls this a “groundbreaking study.” Groundbreaking? Not really. I have been asking these questions since Tyler was diagnosed in 2004. We just hit 1 in 36 people diagnosed with autism in 2017, and articles like these just keep asking the obvious questions with no real work towards a solution!

https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2018/03/05/autism-challenges-persist/24802/?platform=hootsuite