At 21, The Help Ends

State Services Sorely Lacking For Adults With Autism
By Hilary Waldman
The Hartford Courant
February 16 2006

When Charles Vaughn turned 21 on Jan. 11, he walked into a bureaucratic black hole. Connecticut, along with Alabama and Mississippi, is one of three states that provide no services for autistic adults.

"They get all of these good services in school, and you reach that magic age and all of a sudden those services disappear," said Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate. "I mean talk about setting them up to fail."

The problem is simple to understand, but apparently difficult to repair. Connecticut has no state agency to serve adults who have normal intelligence and no diagnosed psychiatric or physical ailments but are severely disabled.

Experts estimate that there may be more than 20,000 adults in Connecticut such as Charles Vaughn, who may score high marks on IQ tests but will crumble under the pressure of a job interview.

Excerpts from article at: http://www.courant.com/hc-adultautism.artfeb16,0,203499.story?coll=hc-headlines-home

For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.