Autism services in Qatar are expanding rapidly, but focus predominantly on young children. The shortage of qualified autism providers and minimal opportunities for autistic youth to participate in school, work, and community have led to a growing population of autistic youth transitioning to adulthood with substantial unmet needs for behavioral…

Purpose: Increasing demand for autism services is straining service systems. Tailoring services to best meet families' needs could improve their quality of life and decrease burden on the system. We explored overall, best, and worst met service needs, and predictors of those needs, for families of children with autism spectrum disorders. Methods:…

Background: Specialist short break services aim to provide enhanced support to family carers as a means of preventing children whose behaviours severely challenge from being placed in full-time residential care. To date, there is limited evidence as to the functioning and effectiveness of such services. Methods: In all, 17 children were selected…

Background: Respite or short breaks are frequently sought by parents and demand for them usually exceeds their availability. Methods: Using data from a national database in Ireland of around 16 000 persons living with family carers, the availability of overnight respite provision was monitored over an 8-year period along with the recorded needs…

Respite is one of the critical support systems for families and carers who support and care for a person with a life-long disability. This study examined the profile of respite services in the Australian state of New South Wales and explored respite providers' views of the factors influencing respite use, and their expectations of respite…