Welcome to the HealthNeedsRx blog! We update weekly, so make sure to check back every week for more articles on health disparities! This first blog will discuss disparities faced by those with ASD, written by Pragya Choudhary. Hello, this is Pragya Choudhary from HealthNeedsRx, dedicated to bridging the health care gap one step at a time! Welcome to our blog, in which we talk about the current healthcare inequalities facing our world today. In today’s blog, we will be discussing the health disparities faced by those on the Autism Spectrum.
“Most of us have been trained to think about autism using a deficit model...which focuses almost exclusively on impairments and limitations, [and] ultimately leads us to see autistic individuals as broken people who are ill and, as my child’s first psychologist explained, need to be fixed[,]” says Dr. Christina Nicolaidis, MD, MPH, and co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education, in an article for the AMA Journal of Ethics. She continues to talk about how this view is harmful to all involved, making those on the spectrum feel as if they are a burden and inhibiting those not on the spectrum from actually understanding the condition. Instead, she suggests we follow the lead of the neurodiversity movement, acknowledging autism as a disability exacerbated by the struggles of living in a society designed for the neurotypical, but also as “a natural variation [which] should not be ‘cured’[,]” instead providing accommodations and support for those on the spectrum so they may enjoy the same or at least a similar quality of life as those not on the spectrum have. Unfortunately, ASD continues to be generalized in the healthcare and general community, the surrounding stigma clouding people from truly understanding it. The health disparities people with ASD face are severe. An article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, “A Scoping Review of Health Disparities in Autism Spectrum Disorder”, reports the comorbidities faced by children on the spectrum, such as gastrointestinal problems and disrupted sleep, as well as those faced by adults, such as mental health conditions and cardiovascular problems. According to the article, those with ASD “have a life expectancy that is between 20 and 36 years shorter than the general population” and while “heightened adverse physical health outcomes in ASD may be partially explained by known health risk factors”, a recent study has ”found that children with ASD have increased costs and higher health care utilization, yet poorer access to health care and medical homes than children in the general population.” This is compounded with racial and socioeconomic disparities, as African American children are often diagnosed with ASD 1.5 years later than European American children, and children from low socioeconomic households are less likely to receive a timely ASD diagnosis when compared to those of high SES. These trends continue onto treatment, according to the article, children of low SES, African American children, and Latinx children tend to receive fewer ASD treatment services. There are positive steps being made to address healthcare inequalities faced by those with ASD. To combat the lack of research on adults with the condition, organizations such as the previously mentioned AASPIRE conduct studies examining the experiences of adults with ASD in areas such as healthcare and employment. Neurodivergent activists are speaking out, such as with the #actuallyautistic movement and the petition started by Sarah Turner, known as Autistic Barbie on social media, to ban videos of autistic children having meltdowns from YouTube. (A link to the petition will be included below.) While there is still a long way to go, the positive progress that has been made so far inspires hope for a more inclusive future. Petition to BAN Videos of Children’s Autism Meltdowns on YouTube: https://www.change.org/p/youtube-ban-videos-of-children-s-autism-meltdowns-on-youtube?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=0cd8ccf0-1142-11ea-bdb9-11b1bfd1d9b2 Sources: https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/what-can-physicians-learn-neurodiversity-movement/2012-06 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693721/ https://aaspire.org/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Welcome to our blog, Medquity!Here we will post extra articles on health disparities to display the profound health inequities in our healthcare system. These are updated every other weekend, so check back regularly! Archives
July 2021
CategoriesHealthNeedsRx ©
Copyright 2021 |