France unveils plan to help people with autism
The French government has launched a €340 million (NZ$574m) strategy in an effort to make amends for the country’s scandalous state treatment of children and adults with autism, which has been denounced by the United Nations as a ‘‘widespread violation’’ of citizens’ rights.
President Emmanuel Macron, who made the need to improve the education and rights of people with autism part of his election campaign, said he wanted everyone ‘‘to be included in school and everyday life’’.
The strategy was launched by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe yesterday and intends, in the words of one government adviser, to ‘‘at last’’ give children with the neurodevelopmental disorder access to mainstream education in France – a legal right they have consistently been denied.
There will also be a drive to improve support for autistic adults, only 0.5 per cent of whom are in regular employment, and who are routinely admitted to psychiatric hospitals.
The government has acknowledged that an adult with autism in France is three times more likely to be in long-term psychiatric care than the rest of the population. Rights groups have decried the standard of treatment as inadequate and inappropriate.
In its most recent report on the subject, the UN says children with autism in France ‘‘continue to be subjected to widespread violations of their rights’’. The French state has had to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to families for inadequate care of autistic children in recent years.
Parents who opposed the institutionalisation of their children were ‘‘intimidated and threatened and, in some cases, lose custody of their children’’, the UN said.
A 2005 law guarantees every French child the right to education in a mainstream school, but the Council of Europe has condemned France for not respecting it. Pressure groups estimate that only 20 per cent of autistic French children are in school, compared with 70 per cent in England. Those who are, are often only accepted part time.
Campaign groups and lawyers have described France as being ‘‘50 years behind’’ the rest of the world in its attitude towards autism, with an overreliance on outdated psychoanalytical approaches.
Disabilities Minister Sophie Cluzel said inclusion was at the heart of the new strategy, and that the government would seek to fully integrate citizens who for too long had been ‘‘relegated to institutions’’.
The government’s plan intends to increase diagnosis and support for young children with autism. It said that until now, autism diagnosis was poor and too late – almost half of autistic children in France are diagnosed between ages 6 and 16.
There will also be an increase in scientific research into autism, an area in which France lags far behind other countries.
The government also said it would train doctors, teachers and early childhood education staff, and overhaul the way school support staff were trained and recruited, in order to ensure that all autistic children were guaranteed a place in school.
Daniele Langloys, head of the group Autisme France, said it was ‘‘strong’’ of the government to at last insist on delivering the legal right of education for all, but she wondered how it would force schools to comply.