Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not too long ago claimed he doesn’t see older adults with what he calls “full-blown autism” — and that this someway helps his long-debunked principle about vaccines.
As two Bay Space mothers elevating autistic youngsters, we’ve heard this line earlier than.
It’s not simply mistaken. It’s harmful.
Right here’s the truth: individuals with extreme autism have all the time existed. However within the Nineteen Fifties and 60s, they had been not often identified, typically misdiagnosed and steadily institutionalized. If Kennedy didn’t see friends with important help wants when he was a child, it’s not as a result of they didn’t exist. It’s as a result of they had been hidden away.
Autism wasn’t even listed within the Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Psychological Problems till 1980. Earlier than that, youngsters with what we now name Stage 3 autism had been typically labeled with schizophrenia or psychological retardation. They had been positioned in state-run establishments. Typically for all times.
When these establishments started to shut within the 60s and 70s, individuals weren’t out of the blue welcomed into society. Many had been shuttled into underfunded group houses, bounced between techniques or ended up on the road.
The 1975 People with Disabilities Schooling Act required public colleges to coach youngsters with disabilities, together with autism. However that didn’t imply each baby was built-in into the classroom — particularly not the personal school rooms Kennedy was in.
Even now, many college students with Stage 3 autism don’t spend their faculty days typically training settings. When you’re not a trainer, a specialist or a mother or father, you may by no means cross paths with them.
And the place are these individuals at this time — the older adults Kennedy says he doesn’t see on the mall? Some are in supported residential packages. Others reside with growing old mother and father who’re scrambling to plan for the long run. And tragically, many have died — too quickly — after years of inappropriate medical care.
As a result of so many had been misdiagnosed, they had been typically handled with psychiatric medication they didn’t want. Many skilled neglect, institutional abuse or just slipped via the cracks.
To counsel their absence from public areas at this time proves autism is a contemporary phenomenon isn’t simply ignorant — it’s merciless.
We co-host “Refrigerator Moms,” a podcast that tackles robust conversations about autism parenting. We don’t draw back from laborious truths. And right here’s one: the techniques that failed autistic individuals 50 years in the past are nonetheless failing them now.
If RFK Jr. needs to make a distinction, he can advocate for higher companies for growing old adults with autism and actual help for households like ours. However misinformation and conspiracy theories aren’t serving to anybody.
Autism isn’t new. What’s new is that extra persons are lastly being seen.
Kelley Jensen and Julianna Scott, two Bay Space moms of autistic younger adults, co-host the podcast “Refrigerator Moms.”
