Daily crisis of working parents

This should be a matter of urgency to help empower the parents and special needs children, she said.

Interacting with people on the issue of special needs people, she said, she recognised that many know nothing about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders.

The keynote speaker at the launch of the Autistic Association’s Autism Awareness Month of activities at Autism Place, D’Abadie last Monday, Carmona said more sustainable jobs must be made available to persons with autism if we are serious about the viability of the independence of the person with ASD.

“The spirit and the letter of The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must take form, either through administrative, institutional or legislative means,” she said.

As a society, she said, “we have a moral responsibility to ensure that those who are marginalised, those who do not have a voice and those who are weak, are fully integrated into our society.” Noting that there is growing worldwide concern that chronic depression is on the rise among parents and caregivers of children with autism, she said, “we need to press the authorities to make available more clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and behavioural scientists to meet their needs.” Occasions to mark Autism Awareness Month, she said, were meant to bring together the movers and shakers in the political, economic, corporate and social spheres who are best placed to formulate policy and initiate programmes that can assist special needs parents and special needs children.

“Through their collaborative efforts, much can be achieved in raising the awareness of the existence of persons, who have been dubbed the mini population,” she said.

The public needs to know and appreciate, she said, that special needs persons need patience, love, support, guidance. With time, she said, the beauty and benefit of their talent and abilities will be revealed.

While persons with ASD are perceived as unstable, incoherent and sometimes even violent, she said, the citizenry must be educated on the signs and symptoms of ASD.

“Law enforcement officers and other persons that deal specifically with the behaviour and conduct of citizens,” she said, “must be trained to acknowledge a person with autism rather than simply placing them in a troubled, deviant and anti-social category.” Noting that the month was being observed under the theme, ‘Toward autonomy and self-determination’, Mrs Carmona said, “it is a recognition that special needs parents and special needs children are not about dependency and must be made to live in an environment that fosters independence and supports the right of the individual to aspire and determine their future.”