Psychiatrist

Volume 39, Number 1

Innovative Community Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Continued

Access to ASD care is generally problematic. A 2016 nationwide, population-based survey found that 30% of children with ASD did not receive treatment. Of those who were treated, 43% received behavioral treatment, 7% received medication treatment, and 20% received both behavioral and medication treatment (Xu et al., 2019). Financial barriers may play a role in children not receiving treatment. Research demonstrates individuals with ASD and their families have higher educational and health care costs (Rogge & Janssen, 2019). For example, predicted annual direct medical and direct non-medical costs in the United States for individuals with ASD had reached $268 billion by 2015, and are expected to rise to $461 billion by 2025, more than four times the costs for those without ASD. (Leigh & Du, 2015) Our communities earnestly need to consider innovative models for providing high quality, cost friendly, and accessible treatment.

The MAP is a community based, EIBI program for children with ASD. One of the goals of the program is to help children with ASD develop skills to improve their activities of normal daily living through evidence-based interventions like EIBI. The MAP is a novel design that incorporates a team of staff including undergraduate students who are enrolled in a class to learn specific ABA skills. These undergraduate students then work as technicians, oneon-one, with the children enrolled in MAP to help provide the EIBI. This design helps keep costs low for the families while serving the children.

Although we lack published research on the effect of the MAP on the undergraduate students, one can imagine the powerful influence of working as a team in a community program devoted to the mission of improving the lives of underserved children. The MAP is in the process of conducting extensive research to measure the effectiveness of the program. Standardized assessments are routinely conducted by Board Certified Behavior Analysts, under the supervision of a licensed psychologist, who use a wide range of tests to assess an individual’s strengths and weaknesses, identify challenging behaviors, and develop goals. Since EIBI programs inherently collect several markers of individual improvement, it is relatively efficient to conduct descriptive, retrospective cohort studies using secondary data. Research on the experience of the undergraduates who participate could lead to useful metrics of successful participation.

Spring 2023 www.communitypsychiatry.org