Asperger's Syndrome
Asperger's Syndrome is a fairly new disorder characterized by
autism-like social inadequacies. Asperger's, or AS is in fact
considered a part of the Autism Spectrum of social disorders,
yet since there are many more charities in the country that
support Autism in general, Asperger's becomes lost in the
shadows of Autism with regard to funding, research and proper
treatment.
Lack of funds to raise public awareness of the disorder and research into the disorder are just a few of the concerns we have and this is why we started the charity. We believe there are many more children and adults within our population that have Asperger's Syndrome. Due to the typical high functioning aspects of the disorder, many children affected by Asperger's go untreated and uncounted and that too needs to be changed. Asperger's is very different from Autism even though it is considered part of the spectrum. Asperger children on the whole will appear “normal” with some apparent quirks perhaps.
“Day in and day out we watched him sit alone at the
playground while all the other children were playing with one
another. Our hearts broke. This is Asperger's Syndrome and it
affects more children than we think. Intermingled within the
Autism spectrum of developmental disorders, Asperger's gets
lost. Please join us to help spread the word about Asperger's
Syndrome and help those families that cannot afford proper
treatment get the help they need. Increasing public and
professional awareness, funding research and helping to pay for
therapy is what we do. Asperger's Syndrome. It's different and
we're going to prove it.”
The founders (President and Vice President), Philip and Nina Bernie respectively have a 5 year old son afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome. From our personal experience we were frustrated by the lack of support and ridiculously high expense of having our son officially diagnosed with Asperger's. To add to our frustration, once we found out our son has Asperger's, the proper treatment was so expensive we had to forego obtaining proper treatment for us and it breaks our hearts.
Our son Philip, age 5, has Asperger's Syndrome
The diagnosis of our son prompted us to investigate
Asperger's much more thoroughly. We found the fact that, like
our son Philip who is in a regular Kindergarten class, many
children and adults afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome go
uncounted and un-helped. As a result, it is our belief that the
few reliable numbers and statistics that are available right now
drastically underestimate the number of Asperger's cases in
America. Since Asperger's does not have a national voice as of
yet, we decided to start the charity. We want to be sure other
organizations that can help Asperger's patients have solid
statistical data and census data so additional funds can be
allocated towards Asperger's research.
Asperger's patients usually attend regular classes so many go undiagnosed and fly under the radar of government due to the lack of reliable statistical data and as we know if something appears much smaller than it really is, it tends to get “swept under the rug” with regard to government intervention, public awareness, research funding, etc. It is our goal to fix all of this. We want to acquire or be able to pay people to acquire accurate population data. We want to answer the question someday “How many people in the United States have Asperger's Syndrome?”
Our Goals and Purpose
The Corporation is organized
exclusively for educational, religious, scientific, literary and
other charitable purposes, including, for such purposes, the
making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt
organizations under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code or the corresponding section of any future federal tax
code.
Specifically, US Aspergers Association, Inc. is a new charitable
organization that was created to help those children, adults and
their families get the help they need in order to be properly
diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Additionally we plan on
obtaining solid statistical data regarding the rate of
Asperger's cases against the general US Population. Moreover we
plan to provide funding to those families who cannot afford a
diagnosis or treatment of their Asperger's-afflicted children or
family members. We also want to raise money to support research
that is solely dedicated to Asperger's Syndrome and its
connection with the general Autism Spectrum. Lastly, we want to
raise public awareness of the disorder. We believe that public
awareness is the first step in finding out how many people in
the country are actually affected by Asperger's Syndrome.
Our Goals In Summary
• Raise public awareness of Asperger's Syndrome
• Make doctors and therapists aware of the disorder
• Help fund or subsidize the costs for Asperger's treatment and diagnoses for families who cannot afford it
• Allocate funds dedicated to the research of Asperger's Disorder
• Fund a large statistical Asperger's census in order to obtain reliable affliction rate data
Breaking News:
US Asperger's Association, Inc. is pleased to announce that Dr. Danielle Thorp Sutton has joined our board of directors. Dr. Sutton brings to our organization a great deal of practical experience as a licensed psychologist and Asperger's and Autism diagnostician. Dr. Sutton currently works at the Autism Spectrum Assessment and Treatment Clinic, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, University of South Florida.
We look forward to Dr. Sutton sharing her expertise and good judgment along the way. Dr. Sutton will join existing board members Dr. Matthew S. Goldring of Arizona and Philip and Nina Bernie, the organization's founders.
Email: info@usaspergers.org