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Improving Health Care Communication for Autistic Teens
Effective communication is essential in health care for accurate diagnoses, quality patient care, and positive outcomes (Ratna, 2019). However, communication barriers can significantly impact the health care experience, particularly for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Saqr et al.,...
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Navigating Mental Health and Life Transitions for Autistic Youth
Meet Josh, a 19-year-old autistic young adult who recently graduated from high school. Josh thrived in the small, structured environment of his school, where individualized support helped him focus on his interests and manage his daily routine. However, the transition to college overwhelmed him...
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Building a Healthcare Transition Program for Autistic Patients Entering Adulthood
The rise in the diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder in youth will mean a rise in the number of adolescents transitioning to adult medical care. 50,000 youth with autism are estimated to enter adulthood each year (Rast et al., 2020) with varying degrees of communication skills, adaptive...
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Value-Based Developmental Disability Care Driven by Innovation Can Efficiently Battle Rising Healthcare Costs
There’s a fundamental truth that often gets lost amid the complexities of behavioral health insurance costs: the paramount importance of outcomes. The call for value-based care across all healthcare is becoming louder, signaling a desire to shift from the traditional fee-for-service model to one...
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Considerations to Accessing ABA Therapy Through Insurance
There are many services that can be beneficial for you to explore for your autistic child, including speech therapy, occupational therapy, and applied behavior analysis (ABA), and consulting with your child’s primary care physician or school team for recommendations on services is an important...
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Challenges for Autistic Adults in Navigating the Labyrinth of Healthcare
As I was fortunate enough to have had employment with good healthcare benefits, I did not have to face many of the challenges in navigating the healthcare system that autistics regularly encounter. Nevertheless, because of my involvement with the autism community over the past quarter century, not...
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Creating Sensory-Friendly Health Care Environments for Autistic Patients
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifaceted neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social interaction, communication, and limited or repetitive behaviors. Individuals with ASD might also experience sensory sensitivities, such as heightened responses to lights, sounds,...
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Telehealth Service Delivery to Persons with Neurodevelopmental Disorders
In December 2019, the Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State (CPNYS) partnered with StationMD, a for-profit physician service providing telemedicine to vulnerable populations, to participate in a five-year grant funded by the New York State Department of Health. The Statewide Care Facility...
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Autism Gets an Update: A National Autism Strategy for Canadians
Note: While there are many areas of inequity, this article will focus on diagnosis and support services as seen by the Autistic writer living in Ontario, Canada. Autism in Canada One in 66 Canadians is autistic. Collectively, we face numerous challenges to accessing services and supports,...
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Self-Advocacy in Healthcare: Empowering Autistic Adults to Take Control of Their Well-Being
Navigating the American healthcare system is a challenging task for neurotypical (NT) and neurodiverse (ND) communities alike; however, there are substantially greater barriers to effective care and risk factors identified within the ND community. Research has shown that there are higher mortality...
