A charity in Northern Ireland that offers support services for children and adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may have to shut down.

According to a Sept. 8 article on the BBC News website, the Northern Ireland ADD Support Centre (NI-ADD) says it faces a funding crisis that was caused, at least in part, by a lack of funding from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Sarah Salters, charity director with NI-ADD, said its current financial situation is untenable. "From June 2007 to June 2009 we provided 214 services to Belfast Trust," she explained. "In terms of money that we as an organization have had to secure, that equates to [$228,033.] Of that, Belfast Trust has given us nothing.

A statement released by Belfast Trust said it is not in a position to provide funding to NI-ADD. NI-ADD didnt indicate how long it could continue operating within its current financial framework, the BBC reported.

Labels: money, support groups

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A new government study - the first to look at the impact of autism on a family's finances - found that having an autistic child causes severe financial strain, partly because parents often quit their jobs to care for their child and partly because these children often need multiple treatments such as behavioral therapy, speech therapy, and medications.

The study, which appeared in the December 2008 issue of the journal Pediatrics, compared the expenses of parents with autistic children to those with children who had other special needs. Those with autistic children were three times more likely to quit their jobs or reduce their hours at work to care for children, and they were spending more on their child's health care. They were also more likely than parents of other special-needs children to have financial difficulties.

Author Michael Kogan and his colleagues at the U.S. Maternal and Child Care Bureau used survey data collected on over 40,000 children with special needs.

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects more than 500,000 American children. The symptoms can range from relatively mild problems in communication and social interaction to a debilitating syndrome that includes severe mental retardation.

Labels: autism, money, expenses

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