Autism is at epidemic levels in the United States. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every 150 children will be diagnosed with the disorder.

No one knows why the incidence is so high, but Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan, says it’s important to identify affected children as early as possible and start providing effective treatment and support services.

And while money in Augusta is tighter than it has been in recent memory, an advocate for children says there’s reason to hope funding can be found for those critical services for Maine children and their families.

Mills, who serves on the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, proposes developing a mandatory statewide autism screening program for all children ages 18 months to 3 years.

At a public hearing Thursday before his colleagues on the Health and Human Services Committee, Mills said too many Maine youngsters don’t get diagnosed until they’re about to enter school.

“If you have a kid who’s not discovered until he’s 4 or 5 years old, you’ve missed some significant opportunities,” Mills said. Children with a diagnosis of autism make up the largest share of special needs students in Maine schools, he said, but they experience greater success, at less cost to the state, when their treatment begins much earlier.

Much of the treatment received by autistic children is delivered at school and administered by the state Education Department, but Mills said it would make more sense for the Department of Health and Human Services to be in charge. Especially in the current financial “climate of adversity,” he said, DHHS may be better able to serve as a central resource for professionals and the families they serve.

Mills’ proposal, LD 1977, is co-sponsored by Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess, R-Cumberland, who told committee members her youngest son’s autism was picked up by his pediatrician when he was just 1 year old.

The boy had started walking right on developmental schedule, but he was walking on his tiptoes.

“We thought it was so cute,” Burgess said, but the doctor immediately suspected autism. Thanks to the doctor’s insistence and the full range of therapies her son has participated in since he was a toddler, she said, he is now doing well and is “very high-functioning.” Her son’s early, consistent treatment reduces the likelihood that he’ll be dependent on public support as an adult, Burgess said.

Committee members also heard from Nancy Cronin of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council, who said there is strong agreement among professionals that early intervention produces the best outcomes for youngsters with autism.

During the 2000-2001 school year, she said, 595 Maine students were labeled with the disorder. This year, the number is 1,990.

Committee members asked a number of questions, and reminded bill supporters that Maine is facing unprecedented pressure to cut funding to health and human service programs. The Legislature is preparing to do battle with a second $95 million budget shortfall in the current biennium, and the federal government has pulled the plug on about $185 million in federal Medicaid funding.

Jill Adams of the organization Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities acknowledged that identifying more children with autism would require the state to provide services. But, she asked rhetorically, “do we have to provide the best services, or really intensive services? You can’t get blood out of a turnip.” Any early services would do more to benefit more Maine children than waiting until they reach school age to diagnose them, she said.

Ellie Goldberg, president of the Maine Children’s Alliance, said the state is exploring the possibility of reassigning to DHHS autism services now administered through the Education Department. That likely would preserve federal Medicaid funding and allow more children to get the services they need, she said.

Speaking neither for nor against the measure, pediatric nurse practitioner Anne Graham of Yarmouth said it’s important to keep the screening program within the medical community and not expand it to schools or child care settings. It’s easy to confuse autism with other disorders, she said, but appropriate therapeutic intervention may be quite different.

Andrew MacLean of the Maine Medical Association said busy Maine physicians should be reimbursed for the additional time it would take to administer the required screening.

No one spoke in opposition to the proposal.

A work session on the proposal is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. March 6.

mhaskell@bangordailynews.net

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