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Workplace fellowship program expands to tackle care shortages
Innovative scholarships combine tuition help and direct support
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By Peter Clark (Senior Editor, Autism Info Center) Friday 25th September 2026 |
In the US, a major national autism charity has announced the nationwide expansion of an innovative work-based fellowship programme designed to tackle severe staffing shortages in disability care.
Service providers across the country have long faced high turnover rates and a critical deficit of Direct Support Professionals, leaving many autistic adults without adequate daily assistance.
To address this crisis, the fellowship programme offers tuition support to healthcare and human service students in exchange for completing paid work supporting autistic individuals with high support needs.
The new cohort marks the largest group to date, doubling the size of the initiative and expanding into multiple new regions.
Programme directors emphasise that the scheme creates a reciprocal benefit: Autistic adults receive reliable, empathetic, and properly trained support, while future clinicians gain invaluable hands-on experience that cannot be taught in classrooms alone.
Organisers hope that equipping the next generation of social workers, nurses, and psychologists with practical neurodiversity skills will create a more inclusive, capable, and compassionate healthcare workforce for years to come.
Source: PR Newswire (USA)
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/
Further reading, listening and viewing...
Have you seen our books about Autism and Neurodiversity?
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