Achievements and Challenges of Autism Support System in Russia: A Multidimensional Stakeholder Survey

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is among the most common developmental disorders of great social significance. Adequate intervention can increase socialization of autistic individuals, both increasing their quality of life and decreasing financial burden. Initiatives to introduce modern standards of autism treatment and education in Russia were launched several years ago; unfortunately, there is little information on the perceived problems and barriers, which may hinder further development of autism support system. This paper presents the results of a stakeholder survey including both service receivers (parents of children with ASD) and service providers (professionals working with ASD children) from different regions of Russia. The study reveals that the quality of specialized services related to autism treatment is assessed much higher than the quality of inclusive education and accessibility of general education and other general services available to children and adults with ASD, highlighting the importance of implementing an interdepartmental system providing continuous support to people with ASD and facilitating their inclusion and social integration. The results also show that general attitude to distant diagnostics and education, on par to the estimates of quality of services related to distant education, are lower in non-capital regions, where the need for such services is higher due to lower accessibility of person-to person services. The present study may be of use both for professionals in autism treatment and education, and for the specialists who may encounter persons with autism once in a while, as it brings a detailed estimation of several aspects of autism support both through the eyes of support receivers and providers.