Hospitalization risk factors for kids with autism identified
"The demand is far greater than the number of clinicians , the number of programs and the number of beds we have," said Righi, a research assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University who treats acute care patients with autism spectrum disorders at the E.P. Bradley Hospital. "One of the biggest issues is the availability of acute care services such as day hospital programs and inpatient units to support families when their children's behaviors have escalated to the point of making a situation unsafe at home, at school or sometimes both." Identifying and addressing the factors that make hospitalization more likely, she said, could reduce such instances. Notably, only two of the risk factors identified in the study of patients with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) -- their severity of autism symptoms and the degree of their "adaptive" daily life functioning -- were specific consequences...