What about the Adults with Autism? – by Meredith Walker
Autism has become the disease of the decade as many doctors proclaim, although the majority of attention is paid to the very younger who are just now being diagnosed with the disorder. What happens to those adults who were children thirty years ago when autism was first becoming researched? This smaller group has had to go through life with no real help or care since the onset of the illness and has been rejected from the workplace because of their inability to handle any type of work or social situation. Currently, children who are now diagnosed with autism have the chance to succeed later on in life because of treatment and schooling that teaches them how to adapt to the workplace and social situations; however, this earlier group of children was the initial group in terms of this disorder and missed these early life lessons, thereby causing them to need constant care.
There are different types of autistics every person displaying varying levels of the disorder, although most can be grouped in terms of low functioning and high functioning. High functioning individuals can go on to ascertain college degrees and hold a job, seemingly able to take care of themselves. Low functioning individuals, however, need constant care and supervision, a task that many families are unable to provide because of a lack of funds. The original courses of treatment for autism did not focus as much on blending into society as they now do, which is why many older adults with autism currently are unable to be left on their own. The1960s and 70s featured an era in which psychiatric hospitals were increasingly scrutinized because of their awful conditions and increasing amounts of fatalities; these were the homes in which many autistic patients were placed if the family was unable to care for the individual. This left little hope for the autistic population of the time until recent years in which autism began to take a prominent place in the disease world.
Autism can be spotted early on in an infant’s life because of their learning and cognitive abilities as well as their ability to interact with other babies. Parents are now made aware of this disorder even earlier now because of the increasing amount of tests which doctors perform on babies to test how well they are learning their cognitive functions. While these procedures have helped make massive strides in dealing with autism and creating schools specifically for children with autism, this does little to help the adults who were diagnosed with the disorder decades ago. Very little research is done now that can show how to make their lives easier, as most resources go directly toward discovering what can be done for infants who are diagnosed. Many of these families who have an autistic adult in their family still find themselves strapped for money and are typically forced to place the adult into a government-run home in which they can be properly attended to. This process can be combated by spending a larger percentage of research on the older crowd of autistics. This is not a brand new illness, but has been around for years and should be treated as such, not just a disease that affects newborns and toddlers, but one that is carried on with them to adulthood.
This post was contributed by Meredith Walker, who writes about the health care administration. She welcomes your feedback at MeredithWalker1983 at gmail.com
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