Developmental disorders are in rise in the country. Yet, we are too busy either formulating legal frameworks (bills and regulations) or talking about creating awareness about such. Recently a second lady returned from a seminar on autism in somewhere in US and had wanted to create awareness about autism. We do not know how far it had materialized and what goals had been achieved. Shall we think seriously about helping the needy?
Creating AwarenessAsk ourselves: why do we want to create awareness about autism and such? Is it because we want parents to identify these disorders at an early age so treatments can be sought at a young age? This brings us to the difficult question: Do we have diagnosis facilities or professionals for the job in the country? Our findings indicate that most paeds in the country either lack knowledge about development disorders or do not have expertise to diagnose disorders like autism, ppd-nos, aspergers and adhd. Even if we could diagnose them, do we have treatment facilities in Male’? Do we have developmental paeds, occupational therapists, speech therapists? Are we training parents and caretakers to deal with these children?
In the awareness programs we usually talk about how to identify children afflicted with these disorders. As a result, the public do nothing more than labeling these children or look at them differently where they previously assumed they are just typical spoilt kids. Is this what we want?
Formulating legal frameworks (bills and regulations)In our country most of the good things are in black and white. Rights and privileges just stay there. People who do the actual works rarely consider them. Who is supervising if concerned bodies are sticking to the laws and who is taking action when they have failed? We have several laws for different issues, but ask ourselves what percentage of them are we actually implementing? Of course, we can sue a concerned body in the court of law when they have failed to afford that particular privilege stated in the law. Is this what we really want these laws for?
So, what do we really need to do?1. We need to create awareness among parents to identify early symptoms of developmental disorders so that they can refer to professionals for advice. Simultaneously, we need to bring in experts from abroad to educate health personnel on identifying developmental disorders. Train them to carry out diagnosis.
2. We need to establish early intervention facilities throughout the country. Train and empower parents and preschool teachers with the necessary knowledge and expertise. Ministry of health must take initiatives to run or facilitate treatment facilities in all the 7 provinces.
