$3m deal to fight autism

A Dunedin-based company is joining forces with two international partners in a $3 million deal to help fight the spreading "epidemic" of autism.

Innovative Learning, headed by chief executive and psychologist Dr Mike Reid, of Dunedin, will launch two new certificate programmes later this year.

The certificates are the result of a partnership between his company and Antioch University Santa Barbara, a private institution based in the United States, and will also be distributed in the United Kingdom by Ludlow Street Healthcare.

The programmes aimed to improve the care given to those diagnosed with a range of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by upskilling those who came into contact with them - from teachers and carers to GPs and other health professionals, Dr Reid said.

The certificates offered a combination of online learning and practical community-based exercises, and would be available worldwide, although primarily aimed at the US and UK markets initially, he said.

The first programme would be rolled out in May, and the company hoped to attract 1000-1500 students in the first year, doubling in two to three years, Dr Reid said.

Fees were yet to be finalised, but the programme was expected to earn the company about $3 million in the first year, rising as the number of enrolments did, Dr Reid said.

Innovative Learning was founded in 2006 and is one of 16 companies to receive support from Dunedin's Upstart Business Incubator programme.

The company employed two staff in Dunedin and nine in Santa Ynez, California, while Dr Reid divided his time between the United States and Dunedin.

Speaking to the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin yesterday, Dr Reid said many professionals had no formal training to help them diagnose or cope with people with autism disorders.

Those with autism disorders were "left detached from the world around them", while teachers, for example, struggled to educate them or cope with their sometimes challenging classroom behaviour, he said.

That was despite estimates by the United States-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which put the number of children born with autism disorders as high as one in 150 last year, up from about one case in 10,000 live births a decade ago, Dr Reid said.

Research had yet to identify the reason for the dramatic increase.

The same trend was present in New Zealand and across the world, he said.

The cost to the US economy was up to $US100 billion ($NZ177 billion) last year, spent on a variety of autism-related services, and CDC forecasts showed that could rise to as much as $US400 billion by 2014, Dr Reid said.

"It's everywhere," he said.

"In most of the OECD countries it's the condition that's attracting the most attention.

"It's huge."

chris.morris@odt.co.nz