Qatar leads in raising awareness on autism

Healthcare organisations have lined up a number of initiatives to raise awareness on autism throughout April as Qatar has set up several goals to provide the best care for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Qatar Autism Society, Hamad Medical Corp, Primary Health Care Corp, Sidra Medicine, Mada Assistive Technology Centre, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) under Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Shafallah Centre as well as several other organisations have lined up a number of events to raise awareness on autism.Dr Saleh Ali al-Marri, assistant for Health Affairs to HE the Minister of Public Health and head of national autism committee, said that Qatar gives great importance to those with autism.He also stated that the National Autism Plan (2017- 2021), aims to improve their lives and their families, and the recently-launched National Health Strategy 2018- 2022 has identified seven priority population groups, including those with special needs.According to Dr al-Marri, intensifying all efforts and fruitful cooperation with all relevant parties are necessary to achieve the goals.The National Autism Plan lists 44 goals to be implemented by 2021.The goals focus on programmes to increase public awareness, facilitate early diagnosis and improve the quality of interventions and services, as well as continuity of care and meaningful development in education and social participation.Al Jazeera reported on Monday that QBRI is testing a technology that can detect autism in minutes by tracking eye movement.The first study of its kind in the region has found at least one in 100 children in Qatar suffer from some form of the disorder.Sultana Afdhal, CEO of World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH,) a global initiative of Qatar Foundation said that WISH had published a comprehensive report on autism in 2016.“The report identified the benefit of increasing access to extracurricular activities for children with autism and their families – particularly when those activities involved social interaction and physical activity. This led us to work with a variety of stakeholders, such as Qatar Autism Society and Qatar Foundation’s Community Development team, to organise fun and healthy activities focused on the needs of children with autism.”According to the official, since the last World Autism Awareness Day, WISH has helped develop swimming sessions, horse riding sessions and football training for children with autism.“The football training session saw us team up with Liverpool Football Club Foundation. The feedback we have received from the children’s families has been extremely positive and we have felt privileged to witness the children actively and enthusiastically engaging with our activities and interacting with each other,” added Afdhal.Neil Moors, head, Community Development, WISH said: “Having spent considerable time working with children with autism over the past year, I have found it immensely rewarding. The children have so much to give, and to see some of them go from being apprehensive to enter a swimming pool or join a game of football, to refusing to get out of the pool or leave the field at the end of a session is wonderful.”