KUALA LUMPUR: Many more public autism care centres are needed to support individuals with autism registered as persons with disabilities (PwDs), says Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister said the government is attempting to narrow the acute gap by establishing volunteer welfare organisations to support autism services.
“As of Oct 31, there are 33 autism care centres registered under the Welfare Department. Meanwhile, the number of individuals with learning disabilities in the autism category registered during the same period totalled 65,191.
“The government will continue to implement initiatives to provide support to the services from time to time,” she told the Dewan Rakyat during the Minister’s Question Time session here on Monday (Nov 18).
Nancy was replying to a question from Datuk Dr Alias Razak (PN-Kuala Nerus) on the government's plan to increase the number of autism centres across the country and what assistance and incentives were given to private operators for this effort.
Nancy had reportedly said that more than 740,000 persons with PwDs were registered as of Oct 31, with the Social Welfare Department, compared to 633,653 PwDs registered in 2023.
Nancy said there are currently, there are 573 community-based rehabilitation organisations (PDKs) nationwide.
“As of September, 19,907 PwDs are receiving PDK services across the country. The government is assisting with the operational costs of these PDKs.
“All PwD trainers at the PDKs have received monthly allowances of RM300. As of September, a total of RM137.4mil in financial aid has been allocated to PDKs nationwide," she said.
In efforts to increase the number of centres providing autism support services across the country, Nancy said the Welfare Department has allocated financial aid grants to the National Autism Society of Malaysia (Nasom).
"Through Nasom, various support services, intervention programmes, education support centres, and vocational education facilities are offered at their 15 branches nationwide.
"From 2020 until this year, a total of RM5.78mil has been channelled to Nasom for this purpose," she added.
Nancy said the ministry is finalising plans to establish autism service centres and provide learning fee assistance for autistic children soon.
She said efforts and support for interventional and rehabilitation programmes for autism were cross-ministerial, requiring various expertise and backing.
"This approach is necessary to ensure that the support provided is holistic, promoting development, equality of rights and opportunities, and active participation for individuals with autism," she said.
During the tabling of the 2025 Budget on Oct 18, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced a RM200mil allocation to extend the special needs allowance of RM150 per month to benefit more than 100,000 PwD students across Malaysia.
Anwar who is also the Finance Minister also announced that RM5mil will be allocated to develop an autism service centre.
Nancy added that the ministry is studying how to boost autism diagnoses among children, saying that the autism spectrum is a broad range in a supplementary question by Onn Abu Bakar (PH-Batu Pahat).
