The Department of Public Health at the College of Health Sciences, Qatar University (QU), recently organised a thesis oral defence for a Master of Public Health candidate, which was attended by faculty examiners from the department, and an examination committee from QU’s College of Pharmacy and Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
Lara Sranek delivered her thesis, 'Parental Perceptions of Early Intervention for Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder Attending Secondary Care Settings: A Mixed-methods Study', under the supervision of Dr Mujahed Shraim, Dr Ghadir al-Jayyousi and Dr Nazim Abdel Aati.
The results of her study showed most parents perceived that the early intervention service for their children with autism spectrum disorder was associated with improvement in the children’s condition, and 55% of parents were satisfied with the early intervention service.
The main challenges reported by parents were the long waiting time to receive the early intervention, short intervention duration, and lack of community-based education and social services to support children with autism spectrum disorder and their families.
The study highlights the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration to meet the needs of individuals with autism and their families.