Advocates Say Redefining Autism May Result in Loss of Essential Services

So if intervention/therapy is successful in socializing/improving autistic persons' skills, they will not receive those useful interventions anymore? I guess when they revert back to lower function, you can reapply? STUPID!!!

1 in 58 boys in the US is diagnosed with autism.

Medical community's response: Let's not work our hardest to figure out why so many children continue to get the disorder at such an alarming rate (it was 1 in 150 just a couple of years ago) and instead, let's pick the easy way out and redefine the guidelines, so that less kids are diagnosed with the disorder.

Bravo!

Amazing, amazingly incompetent--The inmates are running the asylum.

Let's re-define poverty to make it go away.

A good number of people with autism spectrum disorders will not be able to function in society (and get jobs) if they don't have intervention, they won't get any help if their families aren't rich enough to get it, which means more people in the end on public aid.

I work in mental health. Over the years I have seen several "Asperberger's" "victims" who were ALL later diagnosed with an Axis II disorder. Two of them were pedophiles who needed that Axis I disgnosis to keep getting SSI. Conversely, I have a neice who has Autism and while she can do many things and speak albeit woodenly due to the lack of social functioning prevalent among true Aspergers patients, she will never be able to function in society as the great majority of us can, for she is too vulnerable. She does not qualify for any type of aid because my brother makes a tad over what is considered needy. So yeah, I get pretty sick of the over use of Aspergers as a handy diagnosis. You cannot convince me that people are not collecting on cash and services for a simple behavioral problem. For those of you who have children whom are truly suffering with an Autism spectrum disorder, you have no reason to chew my head off, and I wish you only the best in your travels thru the health care system.

Holy god, as if it isn't hard enough to get help for adult autistic/asperger's spectrum patients, let's make it harder.If any of these screwed up freudian messes with degrees in psychology or psychiatry had ever had to LIVE with an autistic, at any point on the spectrum, they damned sure would be re-thinking this the OTHER direction.Do you know what it is like to live with an adult who falls into the high-functioning autism syndrome? Do you know what it is like to call in for work and report that they're "ill" .... when the illness is taking the form of an autistic or psychotic break? No? You don't? Then get your fat complacent #$%$ out of your office and FIND THE HELL OUT.

Autism is largely misunderstood. I had Autism as a child, and was placed in a "home" from birth untill 7. I did not speak, and struggled with speech when placed in the care of my father. at age 7. I stuttered badly for many years, trying to get my mind around slowly forming words correctly. Part of Autism is being oversensitised to sounds, lights, stimulii etc. This took me many years to deal with. I think many times this is forgotten. I would literally go stiff as a board for days on end,because my senses were being assaulted with stimulli. This needs to be understood by caregivers, if there is to be any chance for improvement!

First of all, the author of this article did not spell Rett Syndrome correctly.
I am a parent of a child with Rett Syndrome so it is upsetting to see the disorder spelled incorrectly. Rett Syndrome is widely accepted now to be the main cause of mental retardation in girls and the reason behind crib death in male infants.
Secondly, there is no way that you can use an Austism Spectrum Scale to diagnose Rett Syndrome.
Rett Syndrome is nothing like Autism. People with Rett Syndrome are very interested in interaction with others, are very social, and are in fact very loving.
Part of having the diagnosis of Rett Syndrome involves having apraxia (the inability to make make your body do what you want it to do).
People with Rett Syndrome are able to communicate their wants, needs, and feelings with a variety of communication devices.
It is simply unfair to evaluate people with Rett Syndrome and view them as Autistic given the well documented research showing their interest and capability to be social.

I am gonna be the bad guy here, but I think that autistic spectrums disorders are over diagnosed. First we had to pretend like it didn't exist, now everyone has it. Why are we so quick to stick a label on children?
Go on and yell at me.

Great idea, let's redefine how we diagnose cancer while we're at it so we can reduce those numbers too!

This goes father than the teacher's union. If this happens my son will lose his medical coverage. The only reason it is protected now is because he has Aspergers which falls under the Autism umbrella, and in our state my insurance has to cover his care. We pay for our insurance, andhave been for years, but before we got the diagnosis they had cut him off of all "special ed" services, including Occupational Therapy and Speech and language and any other specialist. They claimed our schools should take of the of problem. Our schools didn't and we were willing to step up to the plate and take him privately, but at 2-3 visits a week, with our insurance refusing to chip in at all it was costing us over $2000 a month!
I don't know know about all kids - but this is sure going to hurt our family, and all other families in our state who are trying to take the burden off their school and provide for their own.

So what's the fall back plan for kids who will no longer meet the criteria? Is there one? This change in criteria should not be made without giving options that allow for a child to continue to receive needed services otherwise they will be in limbo.

This is a case of basic job security on behalf of the decision makers. They cut funding for autism and they get to keep their jobs. I will bet my bottom dollar that the DEA has something to do with this as they have completely raped those affected by ADHD. This roughe organization has effectively cut off much needed and prescribed medication to thousands if not millions of people in order to make their jobs easier because they are totally enept at performing them. Look it up-- This is "Big Brother" in action!!!

In my mind Autism is on the rise because of all of the chemicals used in our food supply and our medicines. It is unfortunate that there are those in our government who want only to make the rich richer, without concern for the society, and our children. By doing this reclassification, they will be able to cut the funding for some autistic children, and therefore give more money to their rich campaign contributors. The only way to make our representatives more responsible is a constitutional amendment for mandatory term limits -- like the office of the POTUS has.

FINALLY. I'm sorry, but as a parent of profoundly autistic twin boys, I'm really quite tired of being in the same category as high functioning. It's been unfair that kids who are completely non-verbal and have no fear of danger whatsoever, are put on the back burner for funding because there are so many more kids to service--kids who CAN actually communicate (even if flawed). I understand that each parent feels their child is the most important case. That's what we're supposed to do. But having such a broad umbrella of diagnoses has done a disservice to the kids that truly need it the most. And it really hasn't done any favors to high-functioning kids psyches that are lumped into the autism category either. Yes, have a separate category for Aspies, PDD-nos, etc, but still allow insurance to pay their needed services. And Rett's deserves their OWN category in their own right, apart from autism altogether. It is a medical issue for crying out loud. My hat's off to you Rett's parents for your strength and fortitude. They're really the one's that should be complaining.

What the TeaPublicans are doing here is just part of the silent under the table implementation of their austerity plan. I believe they fear that if the explosion of autism isn't curtailed, one way or the other, it will lead to the discovery of the cause for many of it's victims, known as GMOs that we are now being inundated with.
We should look at all the health problems that have exploded on the scene since the late eighties and early nineties and the link to GMOs and Growth Hormones that were not tested by the FDA for adverse affects on humans. This should also include Aspartame that has been proven causes growths, weight gain, and cancer. Also fluoride that has a toxicity so great that European Countries refuse to us it. There has been proven to be little to no benefit from using any of these methods or products and in most cases any negative affects found in animal testing has been totally ignored. Many times now the FDA studies have been all but destroyed to provide the producer free reign to sell as much as the can to a trusting unwitting public before they are stopped. Operatives from the corporations producing these deadly products have, with the help of the White House, been placed in the FDA with the power to approve the very products they have been working with for these corporations. When a reporter asked Monsanto about the safety of their Genetically Modified products he was told, . "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job." Prior to being the Supreme Court Judge who put GW Bush in office, Clarence Thomas was Monsanto's lawyer. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (Anne Veneman) was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation. The Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Searle pharmaceuticals, (Rumsfeld guaranteed that Aspartame would be aproved even though the FDA had found it to be unsafe for human consumption and denied it approval for many years before Rumsfeld fulfilled his promise.). The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the last election were Larry Combest (Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee) and Attorney General John Ashcroft. (Source: Dairy Education Board). In order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto's growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto's researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. In short, Monsanto approved its own report. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher, Susan Sechen. Deciding whether or not rBGH-derived milk should be labeled fell under the jurisdiction of another FDA official, Michael Taylor, who previously worked as a lawyer for Monsanto. Today, Michael Taylor is in the Obama Administration, in charge of FOOD SAFETY.

Breathtakingly stupid move! With the right intervention, these kids can be employed and contribute to society. Otherwise, it's a life of pain, powerlessness, and poverty for both the kids and their families.

this means the families who have been waiting on a list for desperately needed respite care (in some cases more than 10 years) will never get it.

Autism and ADHD are completely different things. Autism is a crippling condition that seperates the sufferer from the outside world. I am 52 years old. As a child, I lived in a Rudolph Steiner home from birth untill I was 7. I did not speak. However, all of us children communicated very clearly using non verbal communication. Sight, sound,smell,body temperature,eyes,etc. When an adult would come into our ward, we had to try to understand and react to what they said, quickly. If we did not, we would be hit. When they left, we would go back to normal. Our senses were so raw that very easily we would be overwhelmed, and I would literally often become stiff as a board for 2-3 days. So much of Autism is being incredibly oversensitive to any kind of stimulli. Some people improve, some do not, but it is important to remember that you are judging an individual's ability to live in YOUR world, not your ability to understand THEM! Seems #$%$ eyed to me!