So the big autism news this last week exploded on the internet when a proposed plan to change the definition of autism/Aspergers/PDD and all the other acronyms on the spectrum came to light.
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| What a powerful, yet stuffy book... |
The numbers for autism continue to grow. When we first started learning about autism, after Noah was diagnosed, the numbers were like 1 in 150 kids were being diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum. Now, some say it's 1 in 100...so the government and the medical boards are going to do something about it...they're going to change the criteria for the diagnosis...
From the article: The changes would narrow the diagnosis so much that it could effectively end the autism surge, said Dr. Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine and an author of the new analysis of the proposal. “We would nip it in the bud.”
They're not going out of their way to research the disorder...they're not yelling and screaming from all the rafters about this world-wide epidemic...no, they're going to change how we diagnose the poor people who are afflicted.
Seriously? I mean at first I was very upset, but then I thought..."Maybe, I'm overreacting." So I took a deep breath and thought about it. I asked myself, "OK, who is this going to help?" Is this going to help kids and adults on the spectrum by better diagnosing more acutely their conditions, thereby getting them exactly what they need?
No...that's funny...that's not what this is about at all. This, sadly like most everything else, is all about $$$$.
And it's typical bureaucratic crap..."Look at these numbers! They're outrageous! We better do something! OK, let's fix how they get the numbers!"
Ugg...do you know who gets helped by eliminating potentially millions of kids on the spectrum? Insurance companies who've been getting stuck with having to pay for all of their treatments. The Government and social security who are having to help with treatments and assisted living for a percentage of the population that is only going to continue to grow over coming decades...
Not anyone who actually has the disorder.
The DSM hasn't been changed in 17 years...now there is an autism epidemic so the medical world is eager to jump and change the publication...in order to deny there's really an epidemic. How noble of them...
I hope I'm wrong. Seriously, I do. What I see happening is the DSM being rewritten to exclude the Aspergers and PDD-NOS, which make up a very large percentage of diagnoses, so that the insurance and the government can quit helping them.
So that they can leave them on the side of the mountain to fend for themselves.
I could be wrong, but I'll be floored if I am, because like with so many other issues, money rules the day.
And I'm sorry, but all of these kids on the spectrum will become adults on the spectrum, no matter what labels you put on them. No matter how far you want to try and bury the public's head in the sand.
1 comments:
Wearing a larger pair of pants does not make a good weight loss plan either ... Changing the diagnosis doesn't cure anything!
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