Pathway Of Care And Gaps In Services For Children And Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.

Now is a crucial time for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). They have to integrate with all the other contemporary children's initiatives and develop in line with the Children's National Service Framework. This book aims to tell how to do just that.

This comprehensive and much-needed guide addresses the issues faced by clinicians in assessing and treating the range of mental health conditions, which can affect adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Its particular focus on adults fills a notable gap in the ASD professional literature, with an extensive array of contributors from across the psychology and healthcare professions. Covering a wide variety of common co-occurring mental health conditions including mood disorders, anxiety, psychosis, OCD, personality disorders, and eating disorders, this guide also explores broader issues to do with promoting positive mental health and wellbeing. Authoritative and detailed, this is an essential resource for all clinicians and professionals looking to understand and tailor their approach to mental health in autistic adults, and the need for specific methods and strategies to enhance assessment and treatment.

Moving house is difficult for anyone but especially for people with autistic spectrum disorders who face many difficulties with change. Moving house is difficult for anyone but especially for people with autistic spectrum disorders who face many difficulties with change. The Shirley Foundation funded a project by Housing Options, an advisory service for learning disability, to promote the development of housing and support for people with autism and their particular needs.

This volume examines ways in which service delivery to individuals with autism can be improved from both ends of the basic-applied research spectrum. It introduces the concept of translational scholarship and examines real-world value in developing relevant interventions. Each area of coverage reviews current findings on autism from basic research and, then, discusses the latest applied research literature to create a roadmap for researchers, clinicians, and scientist-practitioners to develop new, effective strategies as children, adolescents, and adults with autism continue to learn and grow. Featured coverage includes: Why practice needs science and how science informs practice. The social learning disorder of stimulus salience in autism. Assessment and treatment of problem behaviors associated with transitions. Understanding persistence and improving treatment through behavioral momentum theory. The behavioral economics of reinforcer value. Increasing tolerance for delay with children and adults with autism. Autism Service Delivery is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians and scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in the fields of developmental psychology, behavioral therapy, social work, clinical child and school psychology, occupational therapy, and speech pathology.

Over the course of the last two decades, improved practices in child and adolescent mental healthcare have led to a decreased environment of stigma, which also led to an increased identification and treatment of mental health disorders in children and youth. Considering that treatment and outcomes are improved with early intervention, this is good news. However, the success gained in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry leads to a new challenge: transitioning from adolescent care to adult care. It has been known for some time that children, adult, and geriatric patients all have unique needs where it comes to mental healthcare, yet limited work has been done where it comes to the shifting of the lifespan. Where it comes to the child-adult transition—defined as those in their late teens and early/mid-20s—there can be multiple barriers in seeking mental healthcare that stem from age-appropriate developmental approaches as well as include systems of care needs. Apart from increasing childhood intervention, the problem is exacerbated by the changing social dynamics: more youths are attending college rather than diving straight into the workforce, but for various reasons these youths can be more dependent on their parents more than previous generations. Technology has improved the daily lives of many, but it has also created a new layer of complications in the mental health world. The quality and amount of access to care between those with a certain level of privilege and those who do not have this privilege is sharp, creating more complicating factors for people in this age range. Such societal change has unfolded so rapidly that training programs have not had an opportunity to catch up, which has created a crisis for care. Efforts to modernize the approach to this unique age group are still young, and so no resource exists for any clinicians at any phase in their career. This book aims to serve as the first concise guide to fill this gap in the literature. The book will be edited by two leading figures in transition age youth, both of whom are at institutions that have been at the forefront of this clinical work and research. This proposed mid-sized guide is therefore intended to be a collaborative effort, written primarily by child and adolescent psychiatrists, and also with adult psychiatrists. The aim is to discuss the developmental presentation of many common mental health diagnoses and topics in chapters, with each chapter containing clinically-relevant “bullet points” and/or salient features that receiving providers, who are generally, adult-trained, should keep in mind when continuing mental health treatment from the child and adolescent system. Chapters will cover a wide range of challenges that are unique to transition-age youths, including their unique developmental needs, anxiety, mood, and personality disorders at the interface of this development, trauma and adjustment disorders, special populations, and a wide range of other topics. Each chapter will begin with a clinical pearl about each topic before delving into the specifics.

Rapidly changing demographics in the United States over the past few years have resulted in a "majority of minority" youth. This has far-reaching implications for mental health clinicians, for whom knowledge of cultural context is critically important to understanding their patients and rendering effective, compassionate treatment. In addition to addressing cultural context, the book addresses the emerging crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the significance of the movement for social justice.