A clinical trial to use a “Screen-Refer-Treat” (SRT) Model to study Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) concerns is being performed at the University of Washington within the Department of Psychology www.psych.uw.edu in four communities across the state. The trial is being supported by NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) www.nimh.nih.gov until 2019 with $849,173 in funding for grant (R01MH104302-01).
Generally children do not usually receive a diagnosis of ASD until they are 4 years old or even older for Hispanic families which can mean long waits for toddlers with ASD to receive appropriate specialized intervention during the critical birth-to-three years. The trial is designed to implement and evaluate an innovative healthcare service delivery model that will promote earlier access to specialized intervention for toddlers with ASD.
The SRT Model provides a coordinated and cost-effective approach to identify and intervene sooner by involving both medical and Early Intervention (EI) providers in the diagnostic process. The SRT model builds on available ASD screening tools and low-cost behaviorally-based ASD interventions.
The SRT model provides for universal ASD screening to be done at 16-20 months and then if needed, prompt referrals are made to EI service programs by Primary Care Physicians (PCP) to provide for an expedited ASD assessments for each child.
At this point, an electronic version of the Modified Checklist for Autism (M-CHAT) with automated scoring, incorporates relevant follow-up questions provided to PCP practices. In addition, distance coaching via telemedicine is available to EI providers to support their ASD assessment and intervention activities.
Data on screening, referral assessments, and intervention practices will be collected from 40 PCPs and 80 EI providers across the state prior to and following SRT implementation to identify practice changes.
Contact with caregivers of toddlers with ASD concerns will be recruited from communities before and after SRT implementation and then followed to measure differences and changer over time in the caregiver’s well-being, and the toddlers’ social communicative behaviors.
The study hopefully will produce higher rates of ASD screening by PCPs, earlier referral to EI programs, earlier initiation of ASD-specialized intervention, reduced time between ASD concerns and diagnosis, and improved caregiver and child outcomes.
Go to https://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/hsr_project/home_project.cfm at NICHSR within the National Library of Medicine to view the study. Click on Browse Latest Projects then go to the search box and put in the term Screen-Refer-Treat to view the study.
For more information, email Wendy L. Stone at stonew@uw.edu or call (206) 543-2640.