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29 Sep 2010

Cross-Cultural Initiative on Autism Research; First of Its Kind in India

Westat India is partnering with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) NPI Semel Institute, Center for Culture and Health for a 3-year project focused on culture and disability. The Indian collaborator in this project is the research unit of the NGO Action For Autism (AFA), located in New Delhi, India. This is the first study in India to assess family, child, and programme services for parents of children with autism that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods. The participation of AFA is also significant; AFA is the largest organisation serving children and parents with autism in India.

This project, called Research on Autism and Families in India (RAFIN), will link disability work conducted within the Center for Culture and Health and the UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART).

Funded by the Foundation for Psychocultural Research-UCLA Culture, Brain, Development, and Mental Health Program, this collaboration is intended to establish a research site in India that will encourage sustained research on autism that is truly interdisciplinary and ecologically valid. The site will encourage long-term research partnerships among neuroscientists, brain imagers, developmental psychologists, family and clinical researchers, and ethnographers knowledgeable in the cultures, social relations, and psychiatric disorders of the target populations and setting.

The value added of the proposed cultural perspective is significant. Studies developed through RAFIN will include mixed methods and ethnographic fieldwork to study family and community contexts in conjunction with clinical, intervention, and neuroscience work.

The PI for this project is Thomas Weisner, Ph.D., a Professor of Anthropology, Departments of Psychiatry (NPI Semel Institute, Center for Culture and Health) and Anthropology at UCLA. Westat India's Tamara Daley, Ph.D., serves as co-PI and will direct the field site in New Delhi.

The potential products of this project include:

• An internationally known team of researchers in the field of culture and disability collaborating in India with academics and NGOs;
• Scientific papers by team members based on work in India;
• The addition of data on family context to existing fMRI samples at CART;
• Strong interdisciplinary field training in mental health and disability field research; and
• Evaluations and assessments of AFA programmes that serve hundreds of clinicians, teachers, parents, and people with autism in India.

For more information:

• Westat India: contactus@westat.in (email link)