A new state commission is drafting a plan to deal with a disorder that affects one in 150 children in America. The Missouri Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders has 14 things to accomplish by next July first. The 24 members are to recommend a statewide program for dealing with the disorder.More than four-thousand young Missourians are in state programs dealing with autism.
The commission will operate under the Division of Developmental Disabilities. Director Bernard Simon says it will be face the challenge of helping develop a program to deal with people throughout their lives.
He says the plan will have to deal with diagnosis and treatment of a broad disorder that will require the coordination of several state agencies throughout a person’s lifetime.
The law setting up the commission also creates a state Office of Autism Services to provide that coordination.