The Clinical Center of Montenegro will initiate the formation of a working group made up of representatives of the Central Committee, competent departments and parents of children and young people with autism, in order to jointly formulate problems and begin a systemic solution to accumulated problems, especially when it comes to people with autism over the age of 18.
That's what the KC director said yesterday Aleksandar Radovic at the conference "Is there life for an adult with developmental disabilities in Montenegro".
The event, with the support of the NGO "Equivalent", was organized by the Foundation "Ognjen Rakočević", the NGO "Autism - invisible persons" and "San".
Sabina Decević from the "Ognjen Rakočević" Foundation, is the mother of a boy with autism, but is also employed in KC as a nurse. She said that in 16 years of work, she never received training for working with people with developmental disabilities.
"This leads to a series of problems and dissatisfaction, not because health workers won't work, but because they don't know how to approach people with developmental disabilities," she said, adding that there is no care protocol, so everything boils down to improvisation.
Parents of children and young people with autism problematized the fact that, although prescribed by law, no register of people with autism has been established, they pointed to an insufficient number of experts, insufficient capacity for accommodation in day care centers, and the lack of services that would support patients and families, but and experts who work with people with developmental disabilities, i.e. autism. Services for those over 27, they added, do not exist.
Decević reminded yesterday that the Center for Autism in Podgorica was formed in 2016 and that it deals with the younger population, i.e. children up to six years old.
"Actually, it deals with early intervention... and does not deal with people with autism, as the Law on Health Care provides. We are talking about adults here, over 18 years old," she said.
She also added that the "Ognjen Rakočević" Foundation only has informal data on the number of people with autism, and that they obtained this data through the "Accessibility Card" campaign, which was implemented in 2022 in cooperation with KCCG and other health institutions in the country.
According to that data, which was assessed as the "tip of the iceberg" in further discussion, out of 600 created cards, 342 people with developmental disabilities are in the territory of Podgorica alone.
"Of these, 178 are diagnosed with autism, 90 of them are over 18 years old," she said, adding that this number is increasing.
At the conference, it was also pointed out that the employees of the Public Institution "Komanski Most" in Podgorica, where people with autism are referred, are not trained to work with them...
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