Parents of children with autism demanded comprehensive health coverage

The collective of Self-summoned Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (TEA) from all over the country complained this Thursday about the great bureaucracy that exists in the health and education systems that delays the rehabilitation of their children, and demanded the full application of law 27,043in force since 2019, which guarantee these coverages.

The parents marched this Thursday towards the National Congress in the City of Buenos Aires and, through social networks, parents were summoned to similar demonstrations in the provinces of Córdoba, Río Negro, Misiones, Jujuy, La Pampa, Salta, Mendoza, Santa Fe, Chaco, Corrientes and Catamarca.

Although there are no statistics on how many children with ASD there are in the country, it is estimated that one in 48 children is born with some degree of autism. parents detailed.

Law 27,043, passed in 2015 and regulated in 2019, establishes that Children with ASD must be guaranteed comprehensive health coverageearly diagnosis and access to education without problems of vacancies “but this regulation is not complied with,” Romina Núñez, mother of Ignacio, a six-year-old boy with non-verbal autism, told Télam

For her part, Carla, mother of another child with ASD, said that “many families they have enormous difficulties with school, with social work, with trips and reaching an early diagnosis and that it should not be delayed for years, today there are children who are only diagnosed when they are 10 years old and lose precious time for their treatment”.

“For us everything is bureaucracy and papers so that they take care of our children, claims and lawyers who can pay them. There are people who do not have social work and in public there is almost nothing, specific centers and therapies are lacking, “said the woman.

He also indicated that to reach a diagnosis without social work is a lot of work and social works fill us with papers. In hospitals there are no personnel trained to diagnose and the few who do have it can wait between four and six months for a shift.

“In the state system no more therapiessuch as psychology, speech therapy and in the private sector, the prepaid ones take thousands of turns and we have to resort to protections that take a long time, “said Carla.

The organizers of the marches are parents who have a family member with ASD and who came together through social networks to support each other. In the groups “there are mothers who tell us that they went through 14 schools to be able to enroll their children,” said the woman.

The parents also denounced that not only the autism law but also those that protect children with disabilities and those that protect children in general.

For her part, Romina assured that the regulations establish that “it is the State itself and the social works that have to cover the rehabilitation treatment, but we form 30 WhatsApp groups in the whole country with the same problems“.

One in 48 children is born with some degree of autism.

“The treatments are partially accessed, the social and prepaid works do not want to cover it, with a lot of bureaucracy and in the end they cover the treatments as they want,” he stressed.

“The law is not complied with, so there is a judicialization of this issuebut not all parents can file an injunction,” said Romina, who noted that in the public system “an appointment with a neurologist takes five months and children with ASD up to six years of age have to be diagnosed.”

Jujuy

In Jujuy, the march was held in the central square of the capital city, where an information stand was also set up from which the Parents of Children with ASD talked with passers-by about the signs that the disorder presents, the strategies with which they approach it and the importance of its early detection.

2A 2022
Next SATURDAY APRIL 2, 2022 is World and National Autism Awareness Day, and we’re already underway.#2aBlueTide #tgdpadrestea #let’stalk about autism#GlowBlue #TheBlueTide #WeAreManyandWeAreNotAlone#WorldAutismDay#Autism #TORCH pic.twitter.com/XEwo7WuJGe

— TGD PARENTS TEA PROMOTER GROUP (@TGDPADRESTEA) February 6, 2022

“I rescue that there is more talk, that people are learning more about the subject; that the professionals themselves are starting to want to get more involved, but there is a long way to go,” one of the mothers, Elizabeth Aybar, told Télam.

Enter the multiple concerns, another one that is added these days, according to what he said, is the “fight” that they give before the start of classes so that the social works approve disability benefits around the children’s educational routines.

Cordova

In Córdoba, the march was convened by the Argentine Foundation for the Rights of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Fadetea), who carried out a campaign to make the claims visible.

Sol Amaya said that dissemination activities were carried out on public roads and through social networks to “show inequality, lack of criteria and contempt for the rights of others.”

In this sense, he mentioned the lack of regulations for social works and that the lack of payment or delays of almost 12 months “leave families without assistance, thus violating a fundamental right of people, the right to health.”

mendoza

In Mendoza, Mariela, mother of a 12-year-old boy with ASD, highlighted that a blue flag was raised to demand effective compliance with the Autism Law since “we need to comply with (the law) so that social works and the State respond to the needs of our children to improve their quality of life”.

ASD is a neurodevelopmental condition defined by a series of behavioral characteristics that, among its central manifestations, present alterations in communication and social interactions and difficulty in understanding the perspectives or intentions of others, and that generally have an impact forever.