Acute shortage of autism care centres, says Minister

The Star

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (Nov 18) that many more public autism care centres are needed to support individuals with autism registered as persons with disabilities.  Read more at https://shorturl.at/FC4ij  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Speaker.

00:02Ladies and Gentlemen, until 31 October 2024,

00:06there are 33 Autism Care Centres that have registered with the CKM.

00:13Meanwhile, for those who have not registered,

00:16the problem of learning for the Autism category

00:20at the same time is 65,191 people.

00:26KPWKM, the Ministry of Women, Families and Communities,

00:29is aware that the percentage of the Autism category

00:34registered compared to the number of Autism centres throughout the country

00:39under the control of the CKM or other government agencies is not sufficient.

00:44In fact, the government is always trying to implement initiatives

00:48that can provide this service support from time to time.

00:53On our part, KPWKM, several initiatives have been implemented

00:57to achieve a range of offers and requests for this service and support for Autism,

01:03including cooperation with the community and PSK,

01:10which is one of the community recovery programmes, i.e. PPDK.

01:17At this time, there are 573 PDKs operating throughout the country.

01:25And until September 2024,

01:27as many as 19,907 people are receiving PDK services throughout the country in 2024.

01:39The government is providing assistance to reduce the burden of the cost of operating this PDK,

01:46while all OKU trainers also receive an allowance of RM300 per month in PDK

01:54in 2024 alone.

01:56Until September, as many as RM137.4 million of financial assistance

02:03has been distributed for the benefit of all PDKs throughout the country.

02:08At this time, the government has collaborated with PSK

02:12to establish 11 OKU workshops for 6 categories of OKU children

02:17including Down Syndrome, Autism, Dementia, Dementia, Physical and Learning Disorders.

02:25Meanwhile, we are informed that the Prime Minister,

02:29during the 2020-2025 spending request,

02:32among others, has announced an allotment of RM5 million

02:37to build an autism service centre

02:40and RM19 million for the aid of autism learning centres.

02:46God willing, KPWKM will expand this programme in the near future

02:52and with all our support, we will do our best.

02:55Thank you, Mr. Mohamad.

02:56Mr. Mohamad spoke about the lack of space.

03:00But I think I need to say here,

03:02not all parents who have children with autism

03:05need to send their children to a special care centre

03:09to nurse their children.

03:11But what is important is

03:13the need for these special children to get intervention

03:17to help their development.

03:19Intervention programmes such as speech therapy,

03:23I know this is not enough, right?

03:25Occupational therapy, nutritional therapy,

03:28behavioural management therapy

03:30are different according to individual needs.

03:32We will look at the statistics of the adoption of autistic children

03:36at the autism care centre

03:38and will publish it in writing.

03:40The development rules are also different

03:45according to the concept of the centre they want to operate.

03:49If they want to operate a centre to provide daily care

03:53for autistic children,

03:54the operator can register with JKM under the 1993 Care Centre Registration

04:00or the Children's Care Centre Registration in 1984.

04:03If the centre also provides services provided by doctors,

04:08for example, a rehab specialist at a physiotherapy centre,

04:12then they need to register with the Ministry of Health of Malaysia

04:16as an ambulatory care centre

04:18under the 1998 Care Centre Registration.

04:24I have one more question for you, Mr. Mohamad.

04:27I will add it in writing. Thank you.

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