Given the dramatic increase in people diagnosed with autism during the past decade, new approaches are needed to address ongoing care and treatment concerns. In this video clip from the Sundance Channel’s Grains of Change series, Patrick Dollard, chief executive of the Center for Discovery talks about how the organization uses natural food and farming experiences to benefit autistic individuals. “We’re trying to create wellness and health, and not manage sickness,” says Dollard, . “The best way to inspire people to do good things is to show them how to do it.”
The Center for Discovery also has been systematically gathering a large corpus of data during the past few years in its innovative research program supported by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Northeastern University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina. Three of those researchers—Martha Herbert, Theresa Hamlin, and John J. Ratey—will take part in the Exploring Autism Conference at Omega to discuss their findings, along with other innovative, sensitive, and sensible approaches to autism.