In the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of North Macedonia, the bilingual handbook for families of children with autism spectrum disorder, “Life with Autism – Challenges and Support Strategies” was promoted today.
The handbook is the result of many years of dedicated work of the authors Assoc. Dr. Stojan Bajraktarov, Assoc. Dr. Naser Durmishi, Dr. Sci. Silvana Filipova and Biljana Krstevska-Kokormanova, and its reviewers Assoc. Dr. Ana Poposka, Vasilka Galevska – Jovcevski, M.Sc. and Dita Torte – Chiche.
The organizers of the promotion of the handbook are PHI Institute for Rehabilitation of Hearing, Speech and Voice – Skopje and PHI University Clinic for Psychiatry – Skopje, with the support of the Wife of the President, Elizabeta Gjorgievska.
Addressing the event, the President’s wife noted that the handbook can help family members to better understand children and young people with autism spectrum disorder.
“Apart from being informative, the handbook is also very educational because it contains strategies that can improve communication and interaction with people with autism spectrum disorder”, Gjorgievska said.
According to Gjorgievska, this publication is also our joint contribution to raising public awareness about autism.
“It is our duty, as a society, not to forget any member of our community. Diversity should not be an obstacle, but an opportunity to explore the potential that each individual carries within himself and thus create a space for each of us to express our uniqueness and skills”, the President’s wife said, adding that she warmly recommends this publication not only to family members living with autism, but to the entire Macedonian public.
The promotion was also addressed by the Minister of Health, Venko Filipce, the Head of the UNFPA Office in the Republic of North Macedonia, Afrodita Shala – Plavjanska, as well as the reviewers and authors of the handbook.
The purpose of the promotion is to raise public awareness to influence the change of people’s attitudes towards people who are different, as well as to create equal opportunities for all by helping professionals to further educate them to develop modern treatments, by helping parents to adapt the conditions in the home, by assisting the schools to improve the conditions and the quality of the education of these persons and by creating conditions for their quality inclusion in the society.
