April 2 marked the 16th World Autism Awareness Day themed on “love and care for autistic children and attention and support to caregivers of autistic individuals and professional workers”.

To raise social understanding and acceptance of the autism group and call for social attention and care towards the group, the 2023 World Autism Awareness Day was held on Jiangtan Sanyang Square of Hankou on the morning of April 1. The event offered on-site volunteer medical consultation and One Foundation Blue Initiative to autistic children to actively helping their integration to society.

The event was co-organized by Hubei Mentally Disabled Persons and Relatives’ Association, Wuhan Mentally Disabled Persons and Relatives’ Association, Wuhan Mental Health Center (Wuhan Hospital of Psychotherapy) and Snail Home Service Center for Individuals with Intellectual Disorders. More than 300 individuals, including expert team from Wuhan Mental Health Center, 40 groups of autism rehabilitation families and volunteer college students, participated in the event.

Heartfelt!

Love and Support for “Lonely Warriors”

On the morning of the day, the expert team from Wuhan Mental Health Center provided free consultation services on site, providing psychological counseling services for children and adolescents and giving away publicity materials and loving souvenirs.

It is reported that among the 278 million children in China, there are about one million kids suffering from autism and may be more with their symptoms undiscovered. Tang Jun, Director of Children Rehabilitation Department of Wuhan Mental Health Center (WMHC) said, “It is a long process from denial to learning how to train kids. Financial burdens, stress and family conflicts are all realistic problems confronting families troubled with autism”.

Tang explained that autism children need highly intensive and frequent professional training for at least 21 hours on a weekly basis in order to achieve a certain effectiveness. Therefore, professional workers need to put in tremendous amounts of patience on them. On the other hand, to provide better support for families troubled with autism, the Children Rehabilitation Department of the Center holds regular parent training classes to help them acquire proper training methods at home, and in the meantime, provide psychological support and counseling for both autistic children and their family members, helping parents to discharge their anxieties in order to better attend to their kids.

She said that early discovery, diagnosis and treatment is key to autism. The Children Rehabilitation Department of the Center is the earliest public medical institution to comprehensively carry out autism assessment, diagnosis and rehabilitation training in Wuhan City. Presently, it is a professional training institution designated by national, provincial and municipal disabled persons federation, where diagnosis and rehabilitation training for common mental disorders among children like autism, ADHD, Tourette syndrome and children and adolescents’ emotional disorders are performed.

On the advent of the World Autism Awareness Day, Zhong Baoliang, Vice President of Wuhan Mental Health Center said that the Center would proactively provide technical guidance and training to help more social rehabilitation institutions to improve their service capabilities while offering professional medical services. In the meantime, he called for public attention to caregivers and professional workers for children and individuals suffering from autism and create an equal, respectful and loving social environment for them so that the predicaments confronting autism families could be relieved by understanding and support.

Considerate!

Integration Initiative Lighting up the Blue Wuhan

During the ceremony, all participants performed an ensemble of the Daylily Flower, where the young singer Hong Jingjing successfully led all singers to create a warming and touching atmosphere.

April 2 this year marks the World Autism Awareness Day and the 12th Blue Initiative Day. To raise public awareness of autism and autism group, Wuhan Mental Health Center in joint with Wuhan Snail Home, Parents Organization to join the Blue Initiative launched by One Foundation to voice their support for autism group.

The large integration advocacy session highlighted a costume changing show themed on “We are Definitely Awesome when Being Together” that demonstrated harmony and confidence; the African drum performance attracted citizen participation, allowing more people to realize the existence of this special group; and the integration high-five action aimed to guide autism children to actively express and integrate themselves.

“We will not forget any child coming from stars and we will give them more sunshine and love!” During the event, the Blue Messenger Initiative featured the delivery of blue letters loaded with warmth and love, as well as the Blue Wish Paper Planes activity where volunteers were invited to write down their blessings to autism children on the paper and the planes were collectively sent free to call for more attention and understanding of autism families.

With love and hope in our heart, we will go forward shoulder to shoulder. On the evening of April 2, the Huanghe Tower will light up blue lights for autism children and the Yangtze River light show will also be teemed with blue rays as a gesture of support for the group.