TIJUANA Only 315 children with autism of the 5,000 or so believed to have this disorder in the city are receiving therapies that will help them function to their potential, said organizers of the third annual Binational Autism Conference.
That's due to the relatively high cost of these therapies, said Alicia Villa, vice president of the Alumbra Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps Tijuana families affected by infants with autism.
It's also due to late detection of this disorder. Many parents in Mexico, as in the United States, refuse to accept reality and waste the vital first years of a child with autism.
In addition, she said, there's a lack of awareness by public and private institutions of what is the autism spectrum.
Many people with autism are adolescents and adults who received little or no treatment and live shuttered lives in their homes, she added.
The group helped organize the conference, along with the Iberoamericana University of Tijuana, where it was held on Friday. An estimated 500 people from both sides of the border attended the event.
"Our conference goal is to raise awareness in the community. We want social workers, psychologists, parents and teachers to have a greater understanding of autism and know the latest about this disorder," said Nancy Machuca, cofounder of the binational conference.
Autism is defined as a syndrome; a host of symptoms and signs that, when taken together, indicate that there's a problem in how the central nervous system is functioning, specifically in the brain.
The syndrome affects the child's ability to socialize, communicate, imagine and reciprocate emotionally.
A person with autism can display repetitive or unusual behaviors, social isolation and uncontrolled movement of some extremity.
Machuca explained that the conference, whose first two editions were in San Diego, promotes the early detection in children of autism.
"It's vital to detect autism in the first twelve months of a child's life, when the first signs are starting to be seen," Machuca said. "The first seven years of any child's life is when connections in the brain are developing. They are the basis of the abilities he will have afterward."
Eduardo Díaz, president Enlace Autismo, a support association based in Mexico City, said that governments have not acknowledged this health problem and that's why early detection and diagnoses continue to be difficult.
The Alumbra vice president estimated that a family with an autistic child would need to spend about 15,000 pesos (about $1,130) on therapies to help the child adapt to the best of his ability to function in society. That may not sound like much north of the border, but that amount is well beyond many families of scarce means in Tijuana.
Some conference participants said that their autistic children attended public schools but, as parents, they had to educate teachers and students every day about what the disorder is. They said that it was exhausting but that it had to be done, along with insisting that their children get the therapies they needed.
Others said that they tried to send their autistic children to specialized schools that charged monthly rates that averaged 3,000 pesos ($227), beyond many of the city's households. These parents said that they sacrificed other expenses and time with their other children to try to help their autistic child the appropriate way.
"Many times we face the dilemma: to take our children to therapy or feed our other children. It's a very difficult situation," said Maribel Gutiérrez, 36, who has a five-year-old daughter with autism who was diagnosed two years ago.
In the conference, held at the university's gym, various specialists form San Diego and Tijuana gave seminars and workshops from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. about nutrition, sports, sexuality and therapies, among other topics.
In addition, 12 nonprofit organizations that deal with autism in the city distributed information about their programs.
The stories shared, a summary of what was presented, as well as tips, will be available on-line in Spanish starting this week at www.fundacionalumbra.org.
More information about autism, about how to get support if a member of the family is autistic or to make a donation is available by phoning the Alumbra Foundation at 011.52.664.686.1104 (if dialed from the U.S.).
Omar.millan@sandiegored.
