NUURRSSEE!!! Charles is off his meds again!!!

About the same cost to the taxpayer as the average M.P. Hmm, makes you think doesn't it?

When 1 in 150 is really 1 in 67
by Raymond W. Gallup & F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP
at: http://www.vaproject.org/yazbak/1-in-150-is-really-1-in-6...

From: RRollens@aol.com
A parent and autism activist
10/21/07
(figures will show up in 2007/2008 US Dept. of Education......what will the
nationwide total be then??????)

According to the most recent report released this past week by
California's Department of Developmental Services (DDS) (www.dds.ca.gov),
California's developmental services system added a record 1,060 new intakes
of professionally diagnosed full syndrome DSM IV autism during the 87 day
period from July 3, 2007 to October 3, 2007..a rate of 12 new children a
day, seven days a week... or one new child every two hours.

Never in the 40 year history of California's developmental services system
have 1000 or more new children been added in any one three month period to
it's system. During the past 9 months alone California has added over 2900
new children with full syndrome autism (as always, the numbers of new
intakes ONLY includes professionally diagnosed cases of full syndrome DSM
IV autism and DOES NOT include any other autism spectrum disorders like
PDD, NOS, or Asperger's Syndrome). Keep in mind that it took 16 years (from
1971 to 1987) for California's DD system to see a total population of 2700
persons with autism.during the past 9 MONTHS alone California has added
2900 new cases.

Autism is not only the fastest growing condition in California's DD
system, now accounting for over 60% of all the new intakes (the remaining
less then 40% being the COMBINED numbers of new intakes with mental
retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and conditions that have as part of<

COUNTS FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN RECEIVING SSI BENEFITS FOR AUTISTIC & OTHER
PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENT DISORDERS AS OF DECEMBER, FOR YEARS 2002 - 2006

YEARS TOTALS
2002 45,684
2003 53,358
2004 63,031
2005 73,126
2006 84,240

Ray Gallup - thank you so much for posting these figures on a Scottish forum. Most people will be unaware that California has been gathering statistics on autism for longer than any other government, hence why they are so important. They will also be unaware that California does NOT include in these statistics the numbers of children with Asperger's Syndrome, who have their own severe problems, although they are often erroneously categorised as having `mild` autism.

The Scotsman has not even cited the study from which it is selecting these statistics. This is pretty atrocious - but the article was no doubt a `filler` for a slow news day. They got over 100 posts on their last autism article, so they obviously thought it was a good one to choose, as they market themselves to advertisers on the basis of the numbers of posts that they get on their forums over the course of a month.

If we could get even half of the £56,000 per year that this article claims is spent on people with autism (going by their 1 in 100 prevalence rate), the vast majority of us would be ecstatic. In fact, for a small portion of that, our children could receive an appropriate education, instead of being excluded, secretly excluded or having to suffer the absence of standards currently on offer, which lead to exclusion and mental health problems.

It's funny that they can add up the costs, but they won't tell us about the `services` they provide - because we'd expose them as non-existent to wildly inappropriate.

Well done to the Scotsman for continuing to give column inches to autism. But that's as far as my praise goes - as other posters (thanks very much) have underlined, numbers of people living with autism and Aspergers/PDD-NOS are far higher than the '1:100' that the gvt would like us to believe.

It's not an 'epidemic'. Autism is a very common neurological condition that has been grossly overlooked for ever until now. There are hundreds of thousands of adults in the UK who are on the spectrum and who have never received anything but society's denigration and hatred for their 'eccentric' behaviours and creative, outside-the-box ways of looking at the world.

It's an enormous scandal and a tragedy for each of these people. Many of these people have amazing 'splinter' skills and talents that could be put to very good use if only they were supported to develop and use them. And no, I'm not talking 'Rain Man' here - many people with Aspergers are prodigiously intelligent, they are not 'ill', they do not have to be a 'drain on public resources'...they just need proper understanding of their neurology and adequate support to make their potentially very considerable contributions to society.

I suspect that this is rather scary for those who hold the power and purse strings: autistic people are renowned for their honesty... it's no wonder that successive duplicitous public services/governments are not keen on empowering such straightforward and honest folk!