The current political climate raises concerns. The government is making far-reaching cuts, including in healthcare, which affect people with an autism spectrum disorder. The use of therapy is becoming less accessible for this, often already vulnerable, group within society. To what extent can the cuts be harmful to the well-being of people with an autism spectrum disorder?
Cuts in mental health care
Minister Schippers is acting contrary to the fundamental principle of equality. After all, people with a mental illness are asked to pay a higher personal contribution than people with a physical illness. People develop both psychological and physical disorders through no fault of their own. Yet the minister makes a clear distinction here. Mental health care must provide 35% of the cuts, while it only represents 10% of healthcare costs.
Personal budget
The PGB (personal budget) now offers a solution for people with a milder form of autism. The higher degree of intelligence often ensures a constant awareness of being different and facing the world. This group requires tailor-made therapy and regular healthcare offers no relief.
Private initiatives
Private initiatives are unique and very much needed. For example, Hanneke Verbeek founded the Azure student guidance agency for people with an autism spectrum disorder who are normal to gifted. This guidance is funded from the PGB. With the abolition or drastic reduction of the PGB, this guidance will soon only be accessible to wealthy people for whom the scheme was not intended in the first place. The opportunity to complete a course at HBO or WO level becomes unattainable for many without some form of guidance. The result is that these people without a diploma cannot find suitable work on the labor market.
Hanneke Verbeek’s student guidance office is just one of the many private initiatives that are in danger of being jeopardized by the abolition of the PGB. These private initiatives provide an answer to specific healthcare questions for which there is no room within regular healthcare.
Own contributions
Add the high personal contributions for further lifelong autism, which is a chronic condition, and much-needed mental health care, and the finances become even less sufficient to purchase specific care. So you are hit twice.
What is less known is that for care in kind, the cheaper counterpart of the PGB in which the care is purchased directly from an institution, a four-weekly personal contribution of at least 11.93 has been requested for some time.
If you are referred to a primary care psychologist, you pay a personal contribution of €100 for five treatments. For internal admission you pay an additional €145 per month.
Because the options for obtaining care elsewhere largely disappear, more people will end up in these categories. The health insurance deductible , which will be increased in 2012 from €170 to €220, and the new personal contribution of €200 within mental health care will be on top of this.
Sleep medication
With a disorder in the brain there is an increased risk of a disorder in the production of the body’s own substance melatonin, which ensures that the body prepares for the night. Autism is one of the neurological disorders that is often accompanied by sleep problems. The abolition of reimbursements for sleep medication since January 1, 2009 has already affected many people with an autism spectrum disorder. After all, they are dependent on this sleeping medication for life for a good night’s sleep.
Damn corner
Especially for people with a milder form of autism, all this makes bearing their own limitations even harder. After all, it is not clear from them that they need help. In the current climate in which psychiatric disorders are once again being ignored, the misunderstanding only increases. There is even talk of discrimination against the mental health sector and its patients.
Sweetener
As a mitigating measure, the duration of treatment has been taken into account. Anyone who receives less than 100 minutes of mental health care per year pays ,only, 100. It is clear that the most vulnerable groups do not fall under this scheme. In addition, the time required for administration is also deducted from these 100 minutes, leaving little to worry about.
Crisis shelter
Clients who are treated involuntarily or for a crisis do not have to pay a personal contribution. This is precisely the category that many more people will end up in as a result of the measures. People who cannot pay their own contributions and fail to request the necessary care ultimately end up in crisis care much more often. This care is now many times more expensive.
Developments
With regard to the foregoing, it is important to closely monitor developments surrounding care for people with an autism spectrum disorder. Do these people still receive sufficient support and can they still get the best possible out of their lives? Or do the cuts mean that they receive insufficient care and can no longer develop within their limitations?
In this article I have focused on the group of people with an autism spectrum disorder. However, in addition to this group, there are many more groups of people who are affected by cuts within mental health care. my view on