Be Wary of CARE Clinics and the Center for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (CASD)
Those who wish to ague that autism is a public health disaster frequently cite the lifetime cost of autism as yet another reason why government should take autism seriously and devote huge sums to research into prevention and cure. The major citation is usually the estimated figure of $3.2 million as a lifetime cost per person from Michael Ganz, Assistant Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health.
I have questioned the assumptions behind Ganz’s work in a previous post. But in one area at least it seems that he may have underestimated the costs. Ganz puts the lifetime costs of biomedical treatment or, as he describes it, complementary and alternative medicine at $2704. This may be a reasonable figure averaged out over the entire autistic population but for those parents who do take the biomedical route the costs can be much higher.
Over on Autism Watch Stephen Barratt has posted an article in which he advises parents to “Be Wary of CARE Clinics and the Center for Autistic Spectrum Disorders (CASD)” They offer a bewildering array of tests and treatments that are totally unproven and are billing insurance companies for up to $40,000 a person. For comparison Ganz estimates the total lifetime costs for physician and dental costs for an autistic person at $42,259.
These outrageous charges for quack treatments are not part of the cost of autism. They are part of the cost to families and to society as a whole of the campaign to paint autism as an unprecedented health disaster. All the talk of epidemics and autism as a devastating disorder has, on the one hand led mainstream science to direct a multi-million dollar research budget into seeking means of preventing autism by finding its marker genes and devising ante-natal tests. On the other hand, parents of autistic children are vulnerable to to the sort of expensive quackery provided by CARE/CASD.
Meanwhile parents struggle to find basic services like speech and language therapy and respite care. Schools struggle to honour IEPs on limited budgets and autistic adults either cannot find services or are told they are ineligible. Instead of spending money on autism let us spend it on autistic people themselves.
Comment by David Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction) | January 21st, 2009
“Instead of spending money on autism let us spend it on autistic people themselves.”
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you!
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Comment by Sarah Good | December 5th, 2009
How about the quackerey of ABA which Autism Speaks support? It costs 75,000 to 100,000 a year and does not cure autism.
Lab tests are scientific unless you are a caveman, and do not know about technology. Chelation has been approved for heavy metal toxicity since the 1960s for your information. Barrett does not have a degree in laboratory science, but was a psychiatrist working at a mental hospital back in the stone age when mental hospitals were houses of horror. The only thing he knows is how to drug people into oblivion.
Comment by Mike | December 5th, 2009
Sarah
how about sticking to the subject? ABA and Autism Speaks are not the subject of this article. Many lab tests are not scientific. The American College of Medical Toxicology has criticized the sort of lab tests that Care Clinics offered. Personal attacks on Dr Barrett do not advance your argument. Are there any factual errors in Dr Barrett’s article that you wish to correct?