Announced during the presidential campaign as one of the priorities of the five-year term, the care of the handicapped takes on a concrete translation this Thursday. Emmanuel Macron must reveal the main lines of the 4e autism plan.
A theme that allows the President of the Republic to deploy his strategy: work over the long term by associating all the medical, social, associative and educational components.
Suffice to say that this first presidential speech on the health and social theme is eagerly awaited. According to the associations, recalls 20 minutes565,000 children are said to be suffering from autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in France and one newborn in 100 is affected.
The 3e plan (2013-2017), endowed with a budget of 205 million euros, had given priority to the diagnosis of children. In an evaluation report submitted in May 2016, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate of National Education (Igen) highlighted “advances” but also “shortcomings” concerning the taking into account care of adults with this disorder, and support for families of autistic children, notes the France Inter site.
It is therefore necessary to “change the situation”, claim the associations today. Health, education, social life, housing, work must “be adapted”, asks Unapei (1) with “funding commensurate with the challenges”.
For the French Federation Sesame Autism (FFSA), quoted by the daily, we must “catch up”. Using the figures from the Igas report, the associations remind the Head of State that 1,451 children and 5,385 adults with disabilities, including a “significant” proportion suffering from autism, were accommodated in Belgian establishments at the end of 2015, for lack of adapted structures in France.
These parents “forcibly exiled” will be very attentive to the government’s message.
(1) Federation of associations defending the interests of people with disabilities
