Around 50 per cent of mothers of children with autism are suffering from severe mental depression in the country, reveals a research study.
Furthermore, according to the study, one-third of the mothers face negative sentiments from family members, and their quality of life was found to be poor in general. On the other hand, the children often get harassed, assaulted and neglected due to their condition. Due to stress from hard work and depression, many of these mothers suffer from various diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiac problems. But most of them cannot seek medical treatment, as they have to remain occupied with their children.
In general, six to seven percent of adults suffer from mental depression in Bangladesh. However, for mothers of children with autism, the rate is above 45 per cent. Low-cost, school-based counseling can have promising outcomes in improving the depression status and quality of life of these mothers. It was observed that counseling can improve the mental health condition of the mothers, including significant improvement among 40 per cent of those who had depression and among 23 per cent who did not have depression. Half of the mothers acquired a normal state of mental health after four sessions, and overall quality of life improved among them, irrespective of having depression.
Some organisations have come up with minimal out-of-pocket expenditure in providing counseling services, but the system needs to upscale. The government and NGO entities should launch awareness campaigns thus parents will not be ashamed of autistic children and society will accept the difference. Though the government has widened medical and learning facilities for autistic children, it is not enough against the high volume of autistic syndromic children. We ask the government, private and NGOs to provide learning and skills training for autistic children for a better inclusive society. Otherwise, we will fail to make an inclusive society, a society for all.
