For more information, contact:

Ron & Sharon Oberleitner

AutismCares™

(800) 960-1844 • AutismCares@talkautism.org

Children with Autism Affected by Katrina Finding Help Through AutismCares 

Autism Community Rallies to Support Families in the Wake of the Hurricane

BOISE, Idaho (Sept. 15, 2005) – Leading autism organizations have come together to form AutismCares (www.autismcares.org), a nationwide disaster relief effort that aims to assist potentially thousands of Katrina families affected by autism.  Children with autism often require intensive biomedical and behavioral therapies and thoroughly planned routines.  Katrina has wrought death, disease and severe disruption, and families who live with autism face unique challenges in its wake.  AutismCares has created a network to support families whose struggle with autism has now been intensified by natural disaster, forced relocation and scarce resources.   

 “AutismCares – Katrina” is a relief effort designed to address the most immediate needs of the more than 900 children with autism and their families who are now left without homes and the resources these special-needs children depend on.  This estimated population only accounts for children ages 3-22 in the state of Louisiana alone, not counting those displaced in Mississippi or Alabama who have been diagnosed with autism and does not include any child in a private school, home-based educational program, or those with autism who are younger than 3 or older than 22. Through “AutismCares – Katrina,” participating organizations and volunteers will facilitate temporary and permanent relocation, mobilize specialty assistance teams, and provide autism-related supplies directly to these families and the professionals caring for them.

“We recognize the huge numbers of families whose children struggle with autism and how the families’ daily trauma is compounded by this disaster,” said Ron Oberleitner, volunteer operations director for AutismCares and parent of a child with autism.  “It’s incomprehensible to imagine the extreme hardships they’re facing to care for their children in these disaster conditions. AutismCares is impassioned to help them short-term and support their recovery long-term.”

Sheila L. Ealey, a victim of the hurricane, says her 6-year-old son, Temple, has regressed significantly since the hurricane hit.  “Temple was receiving extensive behavioral and biomedical therapies and was doing so well.  He was mainstreamed with an aide half-day in a regular kindergarten with intensive services in the afternoon.  He is now flapping, stimming, banging his head, hitting me, crying and making strange noises.  It’s so sad to see all of the work that has gone into the last four years, for him, leave within a week of being without therapy and his familiar surroundings.”

Ealey continued, “We are so lost as a family.  I grew up in New Orleans, raised an older daughter there and am now raising my three youngest ones.  I had dedicated the last two years to developing and financing a school for children with autism which, ironically, was to begin the day Katrina stormed through.  As I watched CNN, I saw my school go underwater,” she explained.  “My heart is broken, as so many others.  My husband and I felt very alone as we desperately began looking to relocate our family permanently.  I am grateful for the kindness being offered through AutismCares, and encouraged to hear that other affected families are opening their homes.”

Peter Bell, CEO of Cure Autism Now, explained, “AutismCares was born out of the compassion that members of the autism community have for one another.  Many of us know firsthand how challenging it is to care for a child with autism.  Add on top of that a natural disaster like Katrina that strips a family of everything they have, and it’s a recipe for yet another disaster.”

While AutismCares works to address the immediate needs of affected families in Katrina’s wake, the organization will also be advocating for and implementing proactive rehabilitation and assistance programs to help these families rebuild their lives.  To that end, AutismCares will collaborate with officials from relief agencies including the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.  Monetary donations to AutismCares may be made online at www.autismcares.org. The legal entity of AutismCares will be housed under Boise State University Foundation – c/o Center of Health Policy Autism Programs, a 501(c)3  nonprofit organization. The Foundation will provide legal and fiscal oversight, as well as resources to ensure expedient and compliant public policy and support. 

Please visit www.autismcares.org for additional information about: the AutismCares relief initiative; current newsroom information; aid coordination for families living with autism; online registration forms for in-kind donations of transportation, accommodations, therapy and respite services; how to sign up to volunteer; and information on products needed for care packages. Trained therapists from The Help Group are available at The Katrina Counseling Helpline at 866-966-9222 24-hours a day to provide crisis counseling to families living with autism who have been affected by Katrina.

About Autism

Autism is one of the fastest-growing and most prevalent childhood developmental disorders in the United States, affecting as many as one in every 166 births (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).  Autism is a neurological disorder that interferes with normal development in language, intuitive thought, social interaction and an ability to connect with surroundings.  Approximately half of all children with autism are unable to communicate their needs using spoken words.  Most are unable to accommodate changes in their daily routines.  Associated problems include hyperactivity, self-injurious behavior, sleeplessness, eating disorders and gastrointestinal problems.  Order and consistently administered therapeutic interventions are critical to the affected child’s and family’s well-being.

AutismCares™ Participating Organizations