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The Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autism

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 399; Issue: 10321 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(21)01541-5

1474-547X

Catherine Lord, Tony Charman, Alexandra Havdahl, Paul S. Carbone, Evdokia Anagnostou, Brian A. Boyd, Themba Carr, Petrus J. de Vries, Cheryl Dissanayake, Gauri Divan, Christine M. Freitag, Marina M. Gotelli, Connie Kasari, Martín Knapp, Peter Mundy, Alex Plank, Lawrence David Scahill, Chiara Servili, Paul Shattuck, Emily Simonoff, Alison Singer, Vicky Slonims, Paul P. Wang, María Célica Ysrraelit, Rachel Jellett, Andrew Pickles, James Cusack, Patricia Howlin, Péter Szatmári, Alison Holbrook, Christina Toolan, James B. McCauley,

Family and Disability Support Research

Affecting about 78 million people worldwide, autism is a condition of global importance because of its prevalence and the degree to which it can affect individuals and families. Autism awareness has grown monumentally in the past 20 years, yet most striking is that much more could be done to improve life outcomes for the highly heterogeneous group of people with autism. Such change will depend on investments in science focused on practical clinical issues, and on social and service systems that acknowledge the potential for change and growth as well as the varied, complex needs of the autistic individuals and their families whose lives could be changed with such an effort. The need to improve autism services in lower-resource settingsThe Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autism by Catherine Lord and colleagues proposes an evidence-based, stepped-care, and personalised approach for intervention and assessment in autism, involving multiple providers, with referral for the necessary support and services as the need arises.1 This approach recognises the differing needs and contexts of individual autistic children, adolescents, adults, and their families over time. The Commission advocates for governments and existing health-care systems to commit to the development of infrastructure for the provision of autism services that meet the needs of autistic people and their families across the lifespan, while at the same time ensuring equity, equality, diversity, and inclusion. Full-Text PDF A way forward to improve the lives of autistic peopleAutism is estimated to affect at least 78 million people worldwide.1 Yet access to health-care services, education, and social care is inadequate for many autistic individuals, and families usually have to assume the role of primary caregiver. Meeting the varied and complex needs of autistic children, adolescents, and adults can be challenging for families and carers. The situation is especially difficult in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where most autistic people live but where the fewest support services exist. Full-Text PDF Catherine Lord: pre-eminent autism clinician-researcherIt is half a century since Catherine Lord graduated in psychology from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA; after a stellar career in the autism field, she has come full circle, rejoining UCLA in 2018 as the George Tarjan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Education at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine. There she works full time, spending 1 day a week in the clinic and continuing her focus on clinical autism research. Full-Text PDF Alex Plank: building bridgesAutism advocate, neurodiversity champion, writer, actor, and filmmaker Alex Plank “had a harder time than most” growing up. “I was bullied a lot; I didn't know how to make friends, and I'd blame myself”, he says. There is nothing self-pitying in his tone; now in his mid-thirties, Plank is simply describing the way things were for an autistic young person growing up in Charlottesville, VA, USA, in the early 1990s. At the age of 9 years, Plank finally received a formal diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. Full-Text PDF