Time magazine carries a portion of “Boy Alone,” an upcoming memoir by journalist Karl Taro Greenfeld about growing up in the shadow of his autistic brother, Noah.

Greenfeld writes here about his family’s attempts to find an acceptable living situation for Noah, whose challenging behaviors have included head-banging, pinching and grabbing others. Greenfeld says the expected surge in the number of autistic adults creates a likelihood that people like his brother “will be a burden to parents, siblings and, eventually, society.” An excerpt:

We are largely unprepared to deal with this crisis. Autism funding and research, so far, have predominantly focused on children. When I have visited autism conferences, there have been exceedingly few research projects devoted to low-functioning adult autistics. It remains difficult for families of adult autistics to find the programs they need, to access those services that are available and even to locate medical professionals and dentists who can handle adult autistics. Too much of the burden rests on the families themselves, who remain in the picture as caregivers, advocates and, too often, the only party with the autistic adult’s best interests in mind.

… Will I always be there for Noah, as my parents have been?

I wish I could say, Yes, definitely, I will be there.

But I honestly don’t know.

Noah Greenfeld was the subject of an earlier trilogy of books by their father, screenwriter Josh Greenfeld: “A Child Called Noah,” “A Place for Noah,” and “A Client Called Noah.”

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under adult living, autism, books, caregivers, families, law, NOT2BEMISSED, personal stories, politics, siblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.