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Severe Disability: The Difficult Transition from Childhood to Adulthood

Severe Disability: The Difficult Transition from Childhood to Adulthood
A student with a mental disability works with an art student at the Haute école des arts du Rhin in Mulhouse in December 2019. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

Suffering from cerebral palsy, a disability from birth that impairs his mobility, Gauthier Richard followed a mixed schooling, between school and the medical-educational institute (IME), before continuing his studies in a mainstream environment. "In my IME, there was an occupational therapist, a psychomotor therapist, a physiotherapist, a neuropsychologist, trained in all types of paralysis," recalls the 29-year-old. "Then, we had to find the equivalent in a private setting and take care of transportation, because not everything is in the same place. It's difficult; there are times when I was off care for three to six months."

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Adolescence is a period of risk in terms of health and life course, even more so for children with severe disabilities: autism, cerebral palsy, multiple disabilities, psychiatric disorders or neuromuscular diseases. Changes in establishment, treatment or medical team complicate the transition to adulthood for these young people in "double vulnerability" and can lead to breaks in care, as highlighted in a report from the French National Academy of Medicine , published on May 13.

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Le Monde

Le Monde

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