Take part in our new Autism survey
Tue, Dec 13 2011

“The diagnosis and management of Autistic Spectrum Disorders: a cross-sectional survey of parents and paediatricians by the Australian Paediatric Research Network” is a new study being led by Dr Sabine Hennel at Monash Medical Centre, Victoria. This new study is helping us understand parents’ experiences during the time that they received their child’s diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and what resources families found the most helpful. We hope this will help us understand what is happening in Australia today, and how this could be improved. All APRN paediatricians are invited to take part. We are asking APRN members to:

• identify children, aged 1.5-18 years from their clinic records, who have received any ASD diagnosis since January 1st 2010.
• mail these families a pre-prepared letter that describes the study and gives families the opportunity to opt-out/in of participating.
• display an APRN poster in their clinic to let families know that they may be approached about taking part in APRN research.

The research team is:

• Supplying all pre-prepared letters, envelopes and stamps for the mail out.
• Contacting families who do not opt-out/in within 2 weeks of receiving the letter and inviting them to participate. Families can choose not to participate, and families who enrol in the study are free to withdraw at any time.

We’ve already had a great start to the project, with paediatricians identifying >900 patients, which is well on the way to our target of 1500. We need as many APRN paediatricians to take part as possible to be nationally representative.

It’s not too late to join! – Just email us at autism.survey@rch.org.au if you are interested.