Helping military families care for children with Autism

>> the military families, those children that have been diagnosed with autism and how under served they are. we have the vice president of autism speaks and rachel is an army wife and a child of two. they learned their child has autism while her husband was on tour in afghanistan. he is back home safe and sound, thank goodness. rachel to you, this is a gap in the military health system , talk about what it means to you as a mother and wife taking care of a child and having to deal with all of the medical challenges?

>> sure, my daughter was diagnosed while my husband was of serving in afghanistan, he was under fire most of the time that he was there. it was a very difficult phone call to tell him from several thousand miles away that his daughter did in fact have autism. but i think what was more difficult were the months that followed while he was still there when i found out how little as much as are available to our military families and that moved me to take action to see that our families get better treatment for autism.

>> i know you have house sponsorship and you are working on the senate piece of it. what does the legislation accomplish?

>> it's a simple change, clarifies the type of coverage that is available to families that serve in the military. some pafamilies can access it but it's only available to people on active duty . which is a big factor because many families who have served for many years when it comes time for them to decide whether they should stay in or retire, they are po they are forced to stay in to get the services. these families do not have coverage in the person in the military does end up leaving the military.

>> and in fact, military families move a lot. you cannot decide whether to start treatment and therapy in a particular place, because you do not know that you'll be able to have the coverage when you move.

>> exactly. and that bill fixes one area of the continuing of care. if we can get that accessibility that whether they are on the move or their suppose is deployed, it a huge advantage to the family that is now living in crisis, because they cannot access the care that they need.

>> we hear so much at every level about the need to stand by our military families and i think the american spirit is there, but a small percentage of america is servingstatus and in these wa rs, how does that feel to have people talk about it and not delivering?

>> for my family, we are so proud to serve, my husband has been in for 25 years, he is highly decorated. he has earned several army commendation medals, service awards, 25 years, he would love to retire. but he can't because if he retires he loses what little autism care is available to active duty members and we are trying fix that.

>> we thank you for your service. him for his service.

>> thank you.

>> and peter thank you for what autism speaks does.

>> thank you andrea.

>> we will follow-up thank you.