Guidelines for Evaluating Service Programming for Autistic Adults: A Patient-Oriented Perspective on Service Evaluation using Functional Criteria

Currently there are few standards for evaluating service delivery, and since health care service delivery is a domain of the provinces, new health care services need to be tested and evaluated in each province before being widely offered. This leads to inefficiency in evaluations as well as unequal access to new services across the country. Also, the evaluations that are done are usually based on what the service delivery organization values about the programming rather than what the patient community served by the programming values. This project proposes creating sets of guidelines for evaluating service programs for autistic adults using functional criteria, criteria based on functional needs rather than diagnosis, determined by stakeholder engagement, including engagement with autistic adults, clinicians, and service providers, via focus groups. These guidelines would account for the variability of symptoms that can present in autistic adults, due to the focus on functional needs rather than diagnosis, and these guidelines would also increase efficiency and comparability in service evaluation and health care service delivery to the autism community.

Faculty Supervisor:

Stelios Georgiades

Student:

Mackenzie Salt

Partner:

Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Health care and social assistance

University:

McMaster University