UAE: More than 20,000 children screened in early autism detection programme

UAE: More than 20,000 children screened in early autism detection programme

Dubai: An early autism detection programme developed by the Emirates Health Services (EHS) screened more than 20,000 children in the past one and a half years. Meanwhile, EHS facilities handled more than 1,000 autism patients in 2022.

EHS revealed these figures in a recent statistical report released ahead of World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10.

EHS said it has developed an array of specialised mental health services for children and adolescents at its affiliated Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, an EHS facility specialising in pediatric and adolescent mental health in the region. Among them is the innovative early detection programme for autism spectrum disorder launched last year.

Early referral, intervention

The programme focuses on referring children with moderate to high-severity autism to specialised evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment facilities in hospitals.

A key feature of the programme is its integration of the widely recognised M-CHAT-R screening tool and a streamlined referral process of positive cases through a centralised portal. Since its inception in 2022, the programme has achieved an impressive compliance rate of 97 per cent.

In its latest report, EHS revealed that the number of children between the ages of 16 months and 30 months who benefited from this service from 2022 to the