East European sub-regional meeting
The sub-regional meeting of the European Autism Action for east European countries took place in Budapest on 13th & 14th September. The host nation provided a warm and prestigious welcome with Ms Zsuzsanna Szilvásy, President of the Hungarian Autistic Society, having invited the Hungarian Secretary of State, Mr Miklós Soltész (pictured), to honour the meeting by giving the opening speech. He gave a message of hope and encouragement and spoke of the everyday challenges that are faced by people, particularly mothers of children with autism. Mr Soltész looked forward to 2011 when Hungary will assume the rotating Presidency of the EU, highlighting the family and disability as areas of priority. Mr Kevin Whelan, CEO of Irish Autism Action, the host agency of this initiative, also welcomed the group and emphasised the importance of looking at long-term solutions in autism public health issues.
The gathering of representatives from autism organisations and professionals from 17 eastern European countries was expertly chaired by Sir Christopher Ball. The context for the meeting was set with a very informative and comprehensive talk by Professor Patrick Bolton of the Institute of Psychiatry, UK, entitled 'Autism Spectrum Disorders: where are we now and what does the future hold?' and a presentation on the report from the 3rd Panel of Experts on ASD meeting was given by Dr Simon Wallace of Autism Speaks. Zsuzsanna Szilvásy gave an overview of the work of Autism Europe, the organisation of which she is President-elect, and through which many of the participants were invited to the meeting.
Full text of the report from the 3rd Panel of Experts meeting.
Dr Alvaro Ramirez, Chair of the European Autism Public Health Alliance (eapha), shared his vision of applying a public health framework to autism in Europe and explained how eapha has evolved and its aim to drive the strategic public health plan for autism forward over the next ten years and into the future. He emphasised the importance to eapha of full participation and ownership of this plan and its execution by stakeholders in autism. He also explained how the European Commission DG-SANCO and the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC) have supported projects on autism spectrum disorders in Europe EAIS, ENSACP, and a series of Panel of Experts meetings as well as the European Autism Action Conference, including the sub-regional meetings.
Dr Ramirez gave special thanks to Irish Autism Action, hosts of the European Autism Action Conference.
There followed a series of country presentations from Hungary, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Country representatives spoke about the level of awareness, diagnostic pathway, services and prevalence where data were available. The presentations gave a really good overview of autism across Eastern Europe, which will be described in the meeting report.
On the second day of the meeting, delegates worked in small discussion groups, looking at what recommendations they believe should be included in an outline strategy for Europe over the next ten years around the key public health areas of research, services, policy, advocacy and surveillance. After energetic and enthusiastic discussion and feedback from the groups, there followed a plenary session during which priorities were identified for the strategic plan.
Delegates from all countries represented at the meeting offered to translate the online consultation questionnaire to give a voice to everyone in their country whose life is touched by autism spectrum disorder and would like to give their views towards making recommendations for a strategic public health plan for autism in Europe.
More photographs from the East European sub-regional meeting
During October, the final strategic document will be written and participants will be consulted on the final content. The European Autism Action Conference will take place on 29th November 2010 and will include presentations made from the Panel of Experts Meeting (Luxembourg 2010), as well as the two sub-regional meetings for east and west Europe. The final draft of the public heath strategic plan for ASD in Europe will be presented to a high-profile audience of policy makers and stakeholders from across Europe. The conference will also be the founding conference of the European Autism Public Health Alliance (eapha) and will be an opportunity for presenting and promoting this new entity.