Communication-centred Parent-mediated treatment for Autism Spectrum disorder in South Asia
The Aim of the Study:
Led by Dr. Jonathan Green (Chief Investigator, University of Manchester), Dr. Vikram Patel (Co-PI, Harvard Medical School), and Gauri Divan (Co-I, Sangath), COMPASS is a project focused on enhancing care for Autism in India, with the goal of evaluating the effectiveness at scale of a parent-mediated intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders in South Asia, delivered by lay health workers in community settings.
In addition to the evaluation, the goal is also to investigate the cost-effectiveness of the intervention, and generate tools and evidence for policymakers to guide the scale-up of the intervention.
The Background:
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disability, which is present from birth and has a life-long impact on the development of a child’s social interactions and behaviours with others. Core impairments in the child are around social communication and interactions; restricted and repetitive behaviours, interests and activities and difficulty in processing the information from the world around them. A recent study from India indicated that there are over two million families in India with a child (2-9 years) with autism.
Most treatments that are being offered to families of children with autism tend to be ‘imported’ and ‘eclectic’ – this means that they haven’t been evaluated properly in Indian settings. To meet this challenge, the team in Sangath along with collaborators adapted an evidence-based intervention from the UK called Preschool Autism Communication Therapy (PACT), and named it the Parent-mediated intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders in South Asia (PASS). Then, through a second project, the team expanded the intervention to include support for comorbidities in the PASS Plus intervention. PASS Plus has two parts: