title: Specialty Care Programme for autism spectrum disorders in an urban population: A case-management model for health care delivery in an ASD population.
abstract: Subjects with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have more medical needs and more difficulties accessing health care services than the general population. Their verbal and non-verbal communication difficulties and particular behaviors, along with lack of expertise on the part of physicians and failure of the services to make adjustments, make it difficult for them to obtain an appropriate health care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe a model for health care delivery in an ASD population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of relevant literature and a discussion process with stakeholders leading to the design of a service to meet the specialty health needs of subjects of all ages with ASD for a region with a population of 6,000,000.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A service was designed centred around the concepts of case management, individualization, facilitation, accompaniment, continuous training and updating, and quality management. Five hundred and thirteen patients with ASD have been seen over a period of 18 months. The programme generated 1566 psychiatric visits and 1052 visits to other specialties (mainly Nutrition, Stomatology, Neurology, and Gastroenterology) in the same period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Persons with ASD may benefit from adjustments of health care services in order to improve their access to adequate health care at the quality level of the rest of the population.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, Madrid, Spain. parellada@hggm.es
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Parellada
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Boada
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Moreno
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Llorente
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Romo
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Muela
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Arango
mesh_terms: D019090:Case Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000628:therapy*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014505:Urban Population