MARGAO
Senior doctors may concede that the word Autism may not be found in the medical school text around four decades ago. Autism cases are not only prevalent in society, but the numbers are on the rise in both districts centres of Goa.
In fact, around 100 autism cases are being reported every month at the two District Early Intervention centres in the State. And, the follow-up cases at the two district centres are pegged around 300-400 a month, which is termed as quite high in Goa.
Says Dr Rupa Naik: “We are celebrating autism today. Around 40 years ago, when I was a medical student, the word autism was not there in the texts. Today, we get around 100 autism-related cases at the district intervention centres, which is quite high. The follow-up cases pegged around 300-400 at the intervention centres are also quite high.”
She, however, hastened to add that there is early diagnosis because of the progress in the health care system and professionally-trained people available now to attend to the children.
“It is indeed a difficult task not only for the doctor but the parents as well, for whom a child is a child. The parents have a difficult task to come to terms with the condition of their child because, for every mother, the child is precious,” she added.
Stressing the need for early detection of autism cases and reference to the intervention centres, Dr Rupa said the parents may tend to hide the behaviour of the child because of the stigma, but such an attitude would only aggravate matters.
Dr Vibha Parsekar informed that the district early intervention centres at Asilo Hospital and Hospicio down south take care of children in the age group of 0-18 years.
“We notice children with autism when they don’t speak or behave like other children. The earlier we detect, it would help the child in communicating,” she said.
Saying the parents are being trained how to understand and speak to the child, Vibha said: “The parents are with the child 24 hours and hence, we train them in communication, speech and occupational therapy.”
Dr Eliska said the district early intervention centres have a whole team to deal with the children and how best to rehabilitate the child, but the key to the success lies in early intervention.
Saying the child needs to be identified early, Dr Eliska said teams posted in the PHCs, Balwadis, Anganwadis etc screen the children for any developmental delays before referring such children to the centres. “We carry out the intervention and also train the parents,” she added.
Hospicio district hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rajendra Borkar said autism can be addressed if there is awareness in the community and when parents are ready to accept their child has an issue.
“Counselling can lead a child to lead a normal life,” he said while stressing the need for awareness in the community to address the issue.
