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A SMALL boy shown banging his
head violently against a wall is the subject of a series of television
advertisements marking the National Autistic Society’s 40th anniversary.
“Now you know what it’s like trying to understand autism,” say the adverts,
which are too disturbing to be shown before the 9pm watershed.
The campaign, starting this week and supported
by celebrities such as Katie Derham, the newsreader, Joanna Lumley and
Esther Rantzen, aims to raise money and awareness of the condition. There
are currently only 4,000 specialist places for the 25,000 autistic children
who need them, and the diagnosis of autism is on the increase. No one knows
for certain how many people in Britain have autism, and a third of local
authorities do not know how many autistic children are in their care.
Figures suggest that autistic people are more
than five times more likely than average to attempt suicide; the strain on
their families is depressing. Since autism was only routinely diagnosed in
the last three decades, no one has made provision for the half a million
autistic people when their parents are too old to care for them.
To address these problems the charity’s
campaign aims to double the numbers of callers able to get through to the
helpline to 40,000 a year, and train an extra 40 practitioners in its
EarlyBird programme, which assists the parents of newly diagnosed children.
The charity also wants to create 40 new places
for autistic children at its specialist schools.
Those wishing to donate or get more
information from the charity can contact it through its website,
www.nas.org.uk, or its helpline, 0870 6008585, from Monday to Friday, 10am
to 4pm
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