MDedge: First Consensus Statement on Improving Healthcare for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

By Marcia Frellick

The first peer-reviewed consensus statement on healthcare for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) is meant to start correcting the inequitable access to appropriate care that these children experience compared with their peers without NDDs. The statement was published in Pediatrics.

The disparities in healthcare culture, mindset, and practice often start in childhood for young people with conditions including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), wrote co–first authors Carol Weitzman, MD, co-director of the Autism Spectrum Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and Cy Nadler, PhD, section chief of Autism Psychology at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues.

Without better access to safe and appropriate care, people with NDDs experience more seclusion, accidents, restraints, and injury in healthcare encounters, the researchers wrote.

Read the full article via MDedge

The Autism and Neurodevelopment Continuity Clinic (ANDCC) pilot program is one of 14 Illuminate projects that will be implemented over five years.  

Click here to learn more about the ANDCC and other resources offered at Children's Mercy.