The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) has announced that an autism forum and report will be presented during its 2016 conference, slated for November 29 and 30 in Doha.
The forum will outline the opportunities and hurdles facing the struggles around autism today, spanning the most recent developments across various sectors, including education, medicine, and
policymaking.
Conference participants will be given action plans and recommendations that will allow them to utilise those innovations, in turn adapting them to local contexts.
Dr Kerim Munir, director, Centre for Autism and Related Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital and associate professor of psychiatry and paediatrics at Harvard Medical School, will chair the forum.
“The autism forum will present a global framework for action through evidence-based policy innovation, and promote the adoption of effective health and education interventions that emphasise inclusionary and family-
oriented care,” said Dr Munir:
The autism forum will provide case studies and diagrams outlining actions that must be taken across the health, education, and social sectors involved in addressing the condition. Raising awareness and enhancing knowledge of the condition by understanding the cultural needs and barriers to best practices, for example, will facilitate treatment and the development of educational curricula.
Egbert Schillings, CEO, WISH, remarked: “Autism is a big, messy, complicated subject, especially when you factor in the panic that’s been unleashed by the spread of false notions of a link between the condition and childhood vaccines. The WISH forum report will outline concrete actions for policymakers to harness innovations in the field and adapt effective policies to their local context, so that individuals with autism and their families can get the support they need.”
The report will recommend that interdisciplinary training spans sectors, with providers, teachers, and families working together to ensure best treatment for the individual at the earliest stages possible. In the home, modifications can be made with respect to services offered and equipment requested, along with counselling and education.
It will underscore the importance of financing research, services to provide training, universal health-coverage options, and the evaluation of outcomes. In the education sector, finance for infrastructure and the curation of curricula will be discussed in detail.