"Special Education" are not practically qualified to deal with autistic patients
The Director of the Autism Research Center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital, Dr. Hisham Al-Dhalaan, said that the graduates of the Colleges of Special Education are not practically qualified to deal with cases of autism patients.
Dr. Al-Dhalaan emphasized that there is a shortage of qualified human cadres to take care of such cases, as they need 250 qualified consultants with doctoral and master''s degrees, and only 50 consultants are available, and they need 25,000 behavior modification specialists.
He explained, during his hosting of the "Mukhtasir" program on MBC, that the number of children with autism is more than 125,000, while the advertiser is only 50 thousand.
He added that the ministries of education, health and human resources are responsible for caring for this group of patients, and in the past they were responsible for each other, but today there is clear interest by officials of these ministries, whether in terms of support or the establishment of specialized programs and centers.
Al-Dhalaan pointed out that despite the efforts made in recent years, only 20% of the targeted ambitions have been implemented.
