Grant to fund study of expanding autism evaluations to social workers
Grant to fund study of expanding autism evaluations to social workers
Yovia Xu, PhD, a clinical assistant professor and health disparities course director in the UICOMR Department of Health Sciences Education, is part of an interdisciplinary team that received a $50,000 grant to fund research that could lead to earlier autism diagnoses in children.
The UIC Institute for Equitable Health Data Science Research provided the funding to Dr. Xu and colleagues from the UIC Department of Information and Decision Sciences, English and medical education to study whether expanding diagnostic evaluations for autism to trained licensed clinical social workers can reduce delays, improve access and lower costs.
“This funding will allow us to utilize multiple existing data sources with a novel health-economic decision model and conduct behavioral research to estimate the feasibility and impact of expanding autism evaluation to social workers,” says Dr. Xu.
Early diagnosis of autism is crucial for timely intervention, yet diagnosis is often delayed due to a shortage of specialized clinicians who provide time-intensive evaluations. This project will use national data sets, comparative state analyses, a health-economic decision model and a national survey of social workers to assess provider availability, training and reimbursement structures, and the projected impact of alternative workforce policies on age at diagnosis, wait times and economic outcomes.
Findings will provide evidence-based guidance for states seeking to modernize autism diagnostic pathways and address the current bottleneck in early identification.