The History of Autism Spectrum News

Autism Spectrum News is a new publication from the award-winning Mental Health News Education, Inc.  The vision to create Autism Spectrum News began in the fall of 2006 when we met with and began following the life of a parent of a young adult on the spectrum.  She taught us many things about the enormous sacrifice and challenges parents face and how dedicated the autism community is in the areas of research, education, and advocacy.  Because of her, we devoted an issue of Mental Health News to "Understanding and Treating Autism Spectrum Disorders."  Following its release, we heard from many readers who suggested we bring our award-winning format to a new publication devoted entirely to the autism community.  We listened, and the seeds to develop Autism Spectrum News began to take shape.  Over the next two years we went out into the community and met more inspirational parents and leaders of many wonderful organizations that are making a difference in the lives of people with autism spectrum disorders.  Thanks to their help and guidance we have found a new voice for bringing you a new and trusted source of news, information, education, research, advocacy, and resources about the promising and ever-changing world of autism spectrum disorders.

From the Founder and Executive Director, Ira H. Minot, LMSW

We are living in a unique and challenging time.  It is a time in which the prevalence of autism affects one in 150 children and a time in which cutting edge research is unlocking the mysteries of autism almost on a daily basis.

As we know, autism cuts across all lines of ethnic and cultural boundaries. The cause for increased research, treatment, support services, and advocacy has been taken up and met by an international force of parents, adults on the spectrum, scientists, educators, treatment professionals, and service providers that are all working together to address one common goal: “How can we improve the lives of people with autism spectrum disorders?”

As I am a survivor myself of a devastating 10 year battle with mental illness, I understand many of these challenges.  For a more in-depth account of my personal journey and why I decided to devote my life to community education, please read “From the Publisher” on page 5 of our Fall 2008 Premier issue of Autism Spectrum News.

Our Science-Based Mission

Since its inception in 1999, our first award-winning publication, Mental Health News, has embraced a philosophy that provides the community with a trusted and balanced source of information.  During this time, the delivery of mental health treatment and services has shifted to a more “evidence-based” scientific framework, designed to bring the best clinical treatment practices to recipients of services.  As a survivor of mental illness, I have also followed, supported, and reported on the growing consumer recovery movement—now highly regarded as playing an important role in the recovery process of people with mental illness.

Our approach has been to focus on treatment and therapies that have been proven effective which have found widespread acceptance as supplemental practices in the treatment of mental illness. To determine what philosophy we would adopt on alternative therapies in Autism Spectrum News, we spoke with many people. The more parents and leaders of the autism community we spoke with, the more we realized how many different types of alternative treatment approaches there were, and how confused and desperate parents are in finding trusted and safe therapies for their children.  We wanted to distinguish ourselves from the countless resources available in print and on the internet that may be offering false hope to parents by promoting alternative therapies that have not been proven by sound scientific research. Autism Spectrum News stands apart from all other resources by focusing strictly on evidence-based treatments and practices that have been studied in clinical trials and research studies by members of the scientific community. We know that by doing so, we are providing our readers with a safe and trusted source of evidence-based news and information.

In keeping with this philosophy, we work with some of the autism community’s leading minds in the areas of science, treatment, education and advocacy. They have volunteered to serve on our Editorial Board, and we are deeply grateful for their participation. The content in each issue of Autism Spectrum News can be trusted because our highly-regarded Editorial Board actively approves all articles and advertisements before going to print.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mhnews-autism.org%2Ffiles%2Fpdfs%2FASN-2011-10-01-17.pdf