Dachel Media Update: Why No Programs for Adults With Autism? (Supply and Demand, Perhaps?)
By Anne Dachel
Read Anne's commentary and view the links after the jump. The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand.
July 26, 2014, Washington Post: Coping with adult children's autism, parents may face 'least bad' decisions
...This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released figures showing 1 in 68 children in the United States have Autism Spectrum Disorder, a term that captures the wide range of ways autism affects children. That was a 30 percent jump from two years earlier and more than double the rates from six years before that.
And over the next 10 years, 500,000 children with autism will become adults, according to Lisa Goring, a top official at the advocacy group Autism Speaks. "There are not enough services. It's a real problem for families."...
COMMENT:
I don't see why this is a problem. Why can't autistic young adults go where autistic adults have always gone?
For years, every time the autism rate took another gigantic leap ahead, major news outlets like the Washington Post expressed no concern. They were satisfied to quote officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who assured us that, no matter what the increase, it was just "better diagnosing" of a condition that's always been around.
In 1994 the definition of autism was broaden and the numbers increased dramatically. It was supposedly just a "broader definition" of a condition that's always been around.
1995: 1 in 500
2001: 1 in 250
2004: 1 in 166
2007: 1 in 150
2009: 1 in 110
2012: 1 in 88
2014: 1 in 68
And twenty years later, CDC officials still tell us all the children with autism are nothing new. And when a healthy, normally developing child suddenly stops talking, making eye contact, loses learned skills and regresses into autism, doctors are helpless, and THEY ARE NOT ALARMED OVER A DISORDER THAT NOW AFFECTS ALMOST TWO PERCENT OF U.S. CHILDREN AND THAT HAS NO KNOWN CAUSE OR CURE.
Yes, the adults are coming. BUT THEY'RE YOUNG ADULTS. Where are the adults with autism in their 40's, 50's, and 60's.....??? No one can show us a comparable rate among adults--especially adults with severe autism whose symptoms are easily recognized. That simple fact should be scaring us all.
This is OUTRAGEOUS. When it's CONVENIENT ...the numbers are just "better diagnosing" When they need to cover up the link to vaccines, it's a real increase! I posted a comment. These people have no ethics.
On July 18, 2014, Keith Kloor at the Washington Post wrote the piece called, Robert Kennedy Jr.'s belief in autism-vaccine connection, and its political peril.
Kloor made a veiled attempt to be balanced by quoting Dr. Mark Hyman and saying, "A tape of the proceeding reveals that CDC officials did, indeed, let Kennedy's and Hyman's assertions about thimersol's toxicity stand mostly unchallenged."
Kloor quotes those who say thimerosal was taken out 15 years ago, but the autism numbers keep going up. How convenient for the Post to now tell us that the numbers are really increasing. Every April or whenever a new rate is announced, they say it may just be "better diagnosing."
In April, 2014, the Post quoted Dr. Coleen Boyle at the CDC who said the rate of one in 68 U.S. children could simply be "that doctors are getting better at identifying these children."
Now the befuddled reporters at the Washington Post are telling us that a generation of disabled children is entering adulthood with no place to go. WHY? Why can't they go where autistic adults have always gone?
NOT ONE OF THEM ASKS THE QUESTION.
WHY DOES ANYONE EVEN READ THIS WORTHLESS STUFF? The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand. Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy is one of the largest and most respected compounding pharmacies in the country. They use only the finest quality chemicals and equipment to prepare our patients’ compounded medications and nutritional supplements. Customizing medication and nutritional supplements for our customers allows them to achieve their unique health goals.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which goes on sale this Fall from Skyhorse Publishing.
Don't forget that the 1 in 68 statistic we hear today is from the birth cohort of 2002 (CDC gets school records of children who are 8, then it takes them 4 years to process the data). Who knows what the data is for children born today? Guess we'll find out in 12 years...
Posted by: Monkey Man | October 29, 2014 at 11:40 AM
Here in Texas it is customary to look for group homes for adults and a large number of them are in group homes. Many still live with aging parents like myself. I am age 76 and my son with severe autism will soon be 41. He is not hidden in a group home but he is living in his own apartment with a state program allowing companion live in care. I have had to become his agency provider, however, and don't know how much longer I can continue this pace. Adults transition out to nothing and older adults stagnate. I have so little funding for my son's program that I can't hire anyone to take over when I can't continue.
Posted by: Martha | July 30, 2014 at 09:32 AM
Dear Anne,
I work as a Job Coach with all age groups (18 and above) at "Goodwill of the Heartland" and there is an avalanche of young clients with autism coming to work with this compassionate, non-profit organization.
If we continue to ignore the vaccine/autism problem, will other non-profit organizations that help the disabled become more prominent and respected?
It's truly becoming "The Age of Autism".
Posted by: Michael J. Dochniak | July 29, 2014 at 11:30 AM
Anne, you know where adults with severe autism used to go - they mostly went to institutions, and those institutions are now mostly closed. The majority of the children diagnosed with autism today do not have mental disabilities. Their adult equivalents are mostly living in the community. Don't you know adults who are slightly over-interested in a certain topic, and fail to make appropriate eye contact? I certainly do.
If most of autism was caused by thimerosal in vaccines, then the rate of autism diagnoses would have dropped in California. It's just as simple as that.
Posted by: Politics Buff | July 29, 2014 at 03:08 AM