Detecting children on the autistic spectrum
A PLAN is being implemented to offer better specialised attention to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD – or TEA in Spanish) who live in any of the municipalities in the Torrevieja health department.
San Luis health centre in La Siesta has started seeing the first of these paediatric patients as part of a protocol set up with the interfamilial attention centre’s specialised autism unit, explained the area’s management company, Ribera Salud
Children with suspected ASD are referred by their primary attention paediatrician to neuropaediatrics for evaluation, and to the interfamilial centre for diagnosis and psychological-educational treatment.
The initiative is designed to offer them closer, specific care; eliminate the need for unnecessary journeys and reduce waiting times.
“Attention to these patients requires a considerable number of sessions,” noted head of paediatrics Dr Gonzalo Ros.
“Until now, families had to travel to Elche at least, with all the difficulties that this entails.” He noted that the health department currently has about 50 children aged between two and seven who are receiving specific treatment for ASD.
The specialist autism unit at the interfamilial centre has a team of psychologists/neuropsychologists, speech therapists and occupational therapists, and is the only one in the province to also have a neuropaediatrician and an infant-juvenile psychiatrist.
They make multidisciplinary diagnoses of complex problems related to ASD, develop specific treatment programmes, provide support for families and with schooling, and develop training and research programmes as well.
ASD should be diagnosed early, as there can even be signs before one year of age, and this enables intervention to be started sooner, leading to a better prognosis for the child, assured Ribera Salud.
The principal difficulties of each child are specifically evaluated in order to design an individual treatment plan that is suited to their needs, they added.