Fairfax: Autism, not ‘baby boomers,’ biggest future health challenge

The wave of aging “baby boomers” needing public health services in Northern Virginia — once thought to be the greatest healthcare and fiscal threat facing local governments in the coming decades — will be far outnumbered by the skyrocketing percentage of young adults with autism diagnoses, Fairfax County human services officials said Tuesday. According to […]

A weighty diagnosis

Roanoke Times February 7, 2010 When Karen Wu found out she was pregnant with twins, she and her husband, Ben McConnell, envisioned the children growing up side by side and doing all the same things together — from starting kindergarten to getting driver’s licenses. The twins, Molly and Peter, are 3 years old now. They […]

Brave Thinkers

Name: Thorkil Sonne Job: CEO and Founder of Specialisterne Why he’s brave: He launched a software-testing company and staffed it with employees who have autism spectrum disorder. Quote: “I think normality is whatever the majority decides it will be, and in our company people with autism are the norm.” Read more about Mr. Sonne and […]

Families Fight for Insurance

Springfield Connection October 1, 2009 Autism is considered a spectrum disorder; those afflicted by it have any number of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. With these shades of complexity comes a surprising new trouble: fighting with insurance providers to have these therapies and treatments covered under existing policies, as not all therapies or treatments […]