THE CASE FOR SUPPORT
Autism Speaks, the only UK charity raising funds for biomedical autism research, exists because it believes that autism is the most serious challenge facing medical science today. That claim is based on two simple realities; firstly, the huge financial burden which autism imposes on society as well as the individual and, secondly, the yawning gap in our knowledge about the causes of autism.
A third important factor for Autism Speaks is that autism benefits from far less research funding than any other comparable medical condition. It attracts less than 0.5% of state medical research funds even in developed countries such as the UK and US and to date little private or charitable support.
Autism research struggles to attract the sympathy and the money of the wider world because autism does not kill; it merely disables. That disability can be extreme and it is life-long. It is this which has led health economists to conclude that the true annual cost of autism in the UK is £28 billion a year, a much larger figure than for any other costed medical condition.
It is now estimated that around one in every one hundred people is on the autistic spectrum. The impact of autism, emotionally, physically and financially, is huge and will continue to be so while there remains little knowledge about what causes the condition. Autism Speaks believes that no truly effective remedies or interventions for autism can be developed without this understanding, but the hopeful news is that recent scientific research is now bringing us little by little towards this goal.
Autism Speaks exists therefore to remove the biggest obstacle to significant and rapid progress down the road to full understanding by ensuring that the funds available to autism research match the scale of the challenge.
The key to Autism Speaks’ approach is funding only high quality research subject to rigorous peer review. Another important objective is to increase the number of people engaged in autism research, ensuring the field attracts the brightest and the best. Long term, the aim is to move funding for research towards the same level as in such areas as cancer or cystic fibrosis. To achieve parity with spending on cystic fibrosis, the budget for autism research would need to be increased by a factor of a hundred.
Autism Speaks’ research programme focuses on four main areas: the causes, biology, diagnosis and treatment of autism. It has a range of funding mechanisms to stimulate interest and support across the medical and research communities.
Above all Autism Speaks seeks to give hope to the whole autism community and intends firmly to see that hope fulfilled. The target of Autism Speaks is to achieve major progress in its key objective of determining and understanding the causes of autism within ten years.