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The Organization of Diagnosis, Care and Funding for Specific Learning and Developmental Disorders (SLDD): A French
Thiébaut-Noël Willig1,2,3, Vincent Henry1,4, Jean-Claude Netter1,5
1Occitadys, Toulouse, France.
Insights
France is piloting a new care model for specific learning and developmental disorders (SLDD) in children. This initiative aims to improve early detection, reduce family costs, and establish a regional care system.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare innovation
- Pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders
- Public health policy
Background:
- Existing measures in France improve access to care for severe neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) in children.
- Specific learning disorders (SLDD) affect 5-8% of children annually but lack comparable support.
- The Article 51 call for projects encourages innovative healthcare delivery and funding models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the design of a novel care and funding organization for SLDD.
- To address the need for improved prevention, early detection, and care for SLDD.
- To inform local and national policy regarding this frequent health issue.
Main Methods:
- A joint initiative by regional health authorities, the French Social Security, and Occitadys proposed an experimental care structure.
- The project involves designing an evaluation procedure and a three-tier regional care system (evaluation, re-education, rehabilitation).
- Focus on a "bottom-up" approach utilizing local professionals and considering socioeconomic disparities.
Main Results:
- The experiment aims to alleviate the financial burden on families seeking care for SLDD.
- It seeks to establish a structured, regional approach to SLDD evaluation and rehabilitation.
- Anticipated benefits include improved healthcare planning and tailored support for affected families.
Conclusions:
- This experimental model offers a potential solution for addressing the care gap in SLDD.
- The approach emphasizes prevention, early detection, and equitable access to services.
- Findings may guide future national policies for managing specific learning and developmental disorders in children.
Abstract:
Introduction: Access in France to early diagnosis and care for the most severe, but infrequent, Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDD), autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay, in children aged 0-7 was improved through measures implemented in 2019. However, there are no such measures for specific learning disorders (SLD), attention, motricity and language disorders (SLDD), despite their annual incidence of between 5 and 8%. Method: We describe the design of a new type of organization and financing of care for SLDD including evaluation procedure, as well as other factors, mainly at the prevention level that will contribute to local and national policy for this frequent health problem. This in response to a national call for projects, commonly called Article 51, targeted innovation in healthcare delivery and funding in the context of medium-term national reform. This provides project stakeholders with the opportunity to set up and implement "bottom-up" projects, mainly using local professionals. A joint initiative by the regional Health Authorities of the Occitanie region, the French Social Security system and a non-profit Association (Occitadys) proposed an experimental new structure of NDD care and funding. Discussion: We here discuss the design of this experiment that aims, over two to three years, to alleviate families' financial burden of care and establish a regional three-tier care system with respect to evaluation, re-education and rehabilitation care. Our approach may benefit SLDD health-care planning, and addresses the questions of prevention, early detection and care-design for families, taking local and socioeconomic disparities into account.