The Maison de l’autisme, a place of resources for people with autism, their families and professionals, opened its doors on Tuesday April 11 in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). “This house is a national resource center for autism, a great house serving families, people with autism and serving the knowledge of autism, the prevalence of which is increasing in our country”said Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister Delegate for People with Disabilities.
“It will be open to the public and to professionals looking for information and will develop training. It will be able to accommodate researchers, seminars. It is not a place to carry out diagnoses, but a place which will be able to advocate good practices, good methods of caring for autistic children and will develop them in our country. »
A doctor wanting to better detect this disorder, an employer seeking to support an autistic employee can find information and support there.
Announced by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in February 2020 and installed near the Condorcet campus, bringing together several higher education establishments, the Maison de l’autisme cost 3.1 million euros, including 1 million euros was financed by the departments of Ile-de-France, 300,000 euros by the region and the rest by the State, which will finance its operation, budgeted at 1.6 million euros annually.
2.3% of children
Equipped with a documentation center and an amphitheater, it will host training sessions for health professionals or teachers, which can be broadcast live on a specific site, explains its director, Marie Schuster. Places will be made available to associations to organize coffees between parents, in order to break their isolation. Sound blockers, padded alcoves for isolation: the building was designed in cooperation with associations to minimize sensory solicitations, which disturb people with autism.
Families or teachers will be able to test suitable equipment there, or even borrow it to try out in class or at home. The building will be the new headquarters of the Ile-de-France autism resource center (CRA), the National Grouping of Autism Resource Centers, which oversees the CRAs of 27 departments, and the Autism Info Service helpline.
The prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorders is increasing in Western countries, going from 0.6% in 2000 to 2.3% of children in 2018, according to a study carried out in the United States, declared the interministerial delegate to autism, Claire Compagnon.