Northern Irish Action Plan for autism
Joanna Rossiter
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A Northern Ireland Health Minister, Michael McGimspey, has announced a new Action Plan to improve autism services for individuals of all ages affected by the condition.
He hopes the plan will reduce the waiting time for diagnosis and treatment of autism as well as improve the support offered to those diagnosed as autistic. Early diagnosis will be enhanced by the redesign of the pre-school health-visiting programme. Meanwhile, a Regional Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will be established to oversee services and agree on a standard of care.
McGimpsey said: “I recognise that there is an urgent need to develop and improve health and social care services for people of all ages who are affected by ASD.” He went on to outline a three-year plan of implementation.
The Action Plan follows the Independent Review of Autism Services, conducted by Lord Maginniss. McGimpsey said he shared the vision of the report to improve services and announced new sources of funding to put the Action Plan into practice: “I have already secured investment of £2.02million over the next three years to support the implementation of this Action Plan.”
