World Autism Awareness Day

Autism also known as autism spectrum disorder-ASD, is a lifelong neurological condition that starts during early childhood and continues into adulthood. World Autism Awareness Day is recognized annually on April 2 to spread awareness about the rights of people with autism throughout the world.

Autism and Mental Health conditions

  • People with autism often have co-occurring mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • It affects the entire human body and one of the co-occurring conditions that Autistic people are diagnosed with is epilepsy, a neurological disorder that results in “seizures” from abnormal circuit activity in the brain.
  • As one-third of people with Autism have epilepsy, Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders and affects 65 million people worldwide, with 2.4 million new cases diagnosed every year.
  • About a third of patients do not respond to medication despite the current availability of over two-dozen antiepileptic drugs, with an estimated 100,000 patients in Canada. Drug-resistant epilepsy is a serious chronic condition associated with a high risk for psychosocial impairment, cognitive decline, and mortality.

Facts

  • Though Autism and schizophrenia are different, some people live with both conditions. Before ASD became a separate diagnosis in 1994, it was considered a part of schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD).
  • In identical twins, if one child has autism, the other twin has about 90 % percent of developing an autistic disorder.
  • People with autism face a high unemployment rate but Autistic individuals can present themselves with exceptional characteristics to code software. Software companies are active leaders in hiring people with autism into the workplace.

Despite the employment barriers, organizations can take steps toward adopting an inclusive environment by educating recruiters, leaders, and staff to break the myths about autistic employees.

Save the date!

On April 4, 2023, Federal Public Speaker Sancho Angulo will host a virtual event on “Neurodiversity at work”. He will discuss the key concepts and barriers that an employee with Neurodiversity faces in the workplace.

Please refer to the event details mentioned below in English or in French according to your language preference:

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Awareness Team.