Quality of Life of People with Autism in Adulthood and the Organization of Services
Marco Airò, Paola Palmieri
This article seeks to highlight the diversity within organizations involved in designing services and interventions aimed at people with autism. On August 10th, 2021, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS (Italian National Institute of Health) issued guidelines for the definition of regional planning, aimed at defining pathways for the formulation of the life project based on quality of life (QoL) constructs. The research was developed from the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, the ISS and the theoretical construct of QoL (Bertelli et. all., 2011). From this frame of reference, a questionnaire was administered that was constructed on the domains of QoL, the WHO’s 10 life skills and the BINA (Brief Index for Non-self-reliance). The instrument involved 20 subjects who represented the primary caregivers of young adults with autism spectrum disorder who had been under the responsibility of their respective Local Health Units for at least 10 years. Data are presented on the practices of the subject caregiver, and the meanings that the family member, as the primary caregiver, attaches to the concept of quality of life in reference to their autistic family member. A reflection on the role of the social worker within services is also proposed.
Keywords
Autism spectrum disorder, Quality of life, Life skills, Caregiver, Social inclusion, Social worker.