Inside purpose-built clinics at Ingleburn and Condell Park public schools,autistic children with an anxiety-driven need to control or avoid demands known as “pathological demand avoidance”,as well as children with conduct disorder,oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD have undertaken sessions with their parents.
The trial has been hugely successful,about nine in 10 who took part showed improvements such that these behaviours were no longer considered a problem three months later.
For families in south-west and western Sydney,where private psychological services for child behaviour issues can be prohibitively expensive and public waitlists stretch up to two years,a free program in schools has been a game-changer.
Locating the service in the child’s school also makes treatment more accessible,and opens up the opportunity to more easily involve a child’s teacher – a key part of the puzzle when dealing with behaviour.
But the program currently runs on Medical Research Future Fund grants and other donations,which isn’t sustainable in the long term. The researchers want it to be embedded in the NSW school system,such as through the established GOT IT (Getting On Track In Time) program.
If the state is to start to shouldering more of the responsibility for early interventions for kids with autism,these programs must be reliably and fully funded. Establishing them as department-managed initiatives,rather than grant-funded one-offs,must be a priority.
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