Christine Meignien, president of the French Sesame Federation for Autism, estimated on Friday April 1 on franceinfo that the situation of autistic adults and seniors is “very poorly understood”. On the eve of the national day dedicated to this neurodevelopmental disorder, she judges that France “lack of means” to deploy more ambitious plans for people with autism.
franceinfo: How can the daily life of people with autism and their families be improved?
Christine Meignien: There are still a lot of things to put in place because the courses are complicated. First, the diagnosis: it is difficult to know who to contact and how, and who will give us a diagnosis. There is no diagnostic center everywhere. This is harmful because it creates a waste of time. We must help the National Education to put in place the right tools for the schooling of the child. In adolescence, it is necessary to create measures for 16-25 year olds who need a course when they leave college, because sometimes nothing is offered. Finally, we fall into dramatic situations for adults and seniors, which are very poorly apprehended until today.
In your opinion, autism plans are not enough?
They have brought autism recognition and advancements, especially for children. But they have always had the inability to put in place a fair policy for adults.
“Technically in France, the situation of adults depends on the policies of the departments, and as long as it remains like that, there will be a dichotomy between the effects of government announcements and the implementation on the ground of the solutions that should be put in place. in place.”
Christine Meignien, President of the French Sesame Federation of Autismat franceinfo
We need to innovate, for there to be more and more autonomy and self-determination among these adults, for them to be able to choose their life. There is still a long way to go because it is a whole section of society that must be mobilized around these life choices.
What are you asking the public authorities for?
We need an autism policy because we have not finished getting out of the rut, especially when we see how the situation of adults is complicated, dramatic for some. There are still people forced into exile, who are forgotten and unresolved. We must therefore get out of this systematic gearing. Then, we need financial, human and administrative resources. Sometimes, it is enough to relax certain administrative rules to unblock fairly concrete situations. We must always have a lever on research and diagnosis because it is only by trying to identify, diagnose and see the needs of people that we can really build solutions. For the moment, there are no figures in France on these real needs so it is dramatic. In the digital age, we should be able to collect a certain amount of data. The levers that can be lifted are financial, human, but also research and diagnostic teams.
Are there countries on which we could take an example because they are ahead on these questions? Belgium for example?
Belgium has enabled some French people to find suitable solutions with a much more open welcome than in France. Now, France has practical capacities equal to Belgium, but we lack the means to build responses. We need more open, more inclusive responses than we have had so far.