Peer-reviewed article
Care pathways, service access, and psychosociaasl support needs in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: a narrative review.
Han X, Weng L, Xu H ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This narrative review examines how children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder access care and support services. It finds that ASD care remains unevenly distributed across regions, with major delays in diagnosis, long waiting times, and workforce shortages creating barriers to timely help. Families struggle to navigate fragmented systems across healthcare, education, and social care, while schools both provide and fail to meet many support needs. The review calls for earlier identification, more equitable multidisciplinary services, and better coordination across sectors to improve outcomes.
Key points
- ASD-related care is uneven across regions and healthcare systems with delays in referral and assessment being a major barrier
- Socioeconomic and geographic disparities create unequal access to services for children and adolescents with ASD
- Families experience high burden from navigating complex, poorly coordinated systems across healthcare, education, and social care
- Schools are identified as both a major site of support and a major source of unmet need for children with ASD
- Poor care coordination and transitions to adulthood weaken continuity of support during critical developmental periods
Limitations
This is a narrative review that synthesizes existing literature rather than presenting new primary data or empirical findings. The countries where the evidence originates are not specified, making it unclear which regions or contexts the conclusions apply to most strongly.
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition that often requires long-term support across healthcare, education, and social care systems. Despite increasing recognition, many children and adolescents continue to experience delayed identification, fragmented care pathways, and unequal access to services. This narrative review synthesizes recent evidence on care pathways, service access, and psychosocial support needs in children and adolescents with ASD, drawing on literature published from 2020 onward, with emphasis on recognition, barriers to diagnosis and post-diagnostic support, service access, family burden, school participation, and transition-related needs. Recent evidence indicates that ASD-related care remains uneven across regions and systems. Delays in referral and assessment, workforce shortages, long waiting times, socioeconomic and geographic disparities, and poor coordination across healthcare, education, and social care remain major barriers to timely support. These structural constraints increase caregiver burden, complicate school participation, and weaken continuity of care during adolescence and transition to adulthood. Families frequently report difficulties navigating complex systems, while schools function as both a major site of support and a major source of unmet need. Improving outcomes requires earlier recognition, more equitable access to multidisciplinary services, stronger family and school support, and better coordination across healthcare, education, and social care sectors. A developmental and systems-oriented approach is likely to better address the changing needs of children and adolescents with ASD.