Autism Care Provider Welcomes NAO Report On Supporting Adults With Autism And Calls On Government To Take Immediate Action

Main Category: Autism
Article Date: 10 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Brookdale Care, the specialist provider of care services for people living with autism, has today welcomed the National Audit Office's Report on Supporting Adults with Autism and called on the Government to take direct action to implement its recommendations.

The findings of the report - which scrutinises policy and practise across Government departments and local authorities - reveal that there is a lack of training and awareness to correctly diagnose and assist people living with autism and strongly recommends that resources are invested to improve planning and commissioning for specialist autistic services, including targeted support for those with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome.

Lesa Walton, Care & Development Director of Brookdale Care, said today:

"The NAO Report highlights the need for the Government to invest significant resources to improve diagnosis and to provide better health and social care support for people living with autism.

"At Brookdale Care we welcome the NAO recommendations for better training of local authority staff and GPs to ensure that prevalence figures are more accurate and people living with autism or an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are able to access the services that they need.

"We have long campaigned for better education of what autism is and Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions guidance would help commissioners and employers support adults with autism to reach their full potential.

"Brookdale Care fully supports the initiative to provide specialist health, social care and employment support for adults with high-functioning autism and urges the Government to take note of the NAO model suggesting that this would impact positively on overall public spending.

"At Brookdale we help those who use our services to seek volunteer and paid employment by supporting residents to access employment schemes organised by Connexions and the National Autistic Society-run service Prospects.

"Brookdale, like the NAO, hopes to see the measures recommended in today's review integrated into the forthcoming National Strategy for Adults with Autism, and we will be incorporating this into our response to the Government's consultation on the National Strategy."

Source
Brookdale Care