research and stats on parental stress related to autism
A study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2008 looked at families of children with autism and compared them to families of children with other special health care needs and found that:
- Families of children with autism incurred large out of pocket expenditures, experienced severe financial problems, had lower physical and mental well being and had to stop or reduce work to care for their child.
- The children had less access to important healthcare.
- 90% of children with autism have multiple concurrent disorders including epilepsy, intestinal problems, anxiety, depression and allergies.
Research done by the Interactive Autism Network in April of 2009 shows:
- The majority of families report significant stress driven by daily behavior issues, the required hyper-vigilance and social isolation
- 48% of parents report exhaustion and sleep deprivation
- 70% of parents report moderate or a great deal of stress impact caused by difficulty in getting services. “I am so tired of fighting”, one discouraged parent says in the report. Another says, “We are told early intervention is vitally important, but we have no support in getting or paying for the services. We are completely on our own to help our child”.
This results in additional financial burdens, increased stress and mental health issues for families. In fact the stress is so high, research shows parents of children with autism have higher medical bills brought on by stress. Worst yet – it is estimated almost 90% of parents of children with autism are divorced.
As a Michigan employer, if I have an employee who has a child with autism – chances are that they or their spouse will have reduced work hours or have to give up their job. If they are working – they cannot be fully productive – chances are they are divorced, interfacing with multiple therapists if they can find them, experiencing extreme financial difficulty and themselves experiencing stress related medical conditions.
It is really hard to find competent therapists. And some portion of the children don’t respond to therapies today. One thing is clear though – the impact on the parents is very signficant. It is another area that research is just pointing out – but there isn’t a lot of help yet to them as individuals and then to help them help their children.
