Readit NewsAlso, in-state tuition for state schools is much less than $50k/yr so try going to Cal and/or your best local public school and supplement with self teaching (e.g. via public/free lectures from MIT)? The self directed learning/motivation is the hard part for many people of that age, but few have said living frugally should or would be easy.
To be fair, this kind of means that universities should be completely public. And although they are for all intents and purposes, in theory they are still non-governmental entities. And that's strange as well.
b) Her idea of how autism is diagnosed is wildly optimistic. It can work for self-diagnosis, ie "no diagnosis", but every psychologist and psychiatrist has a different idea of how to diagnose it. If you don't present repetitive movements, it will likely be very difficult to get a diagnosis.
One of the problems is how the DSM works. To vulgarize, it's a tool to diagnose dysfunctional abnormality. But atypical doesn't mean dysfunctional in the same way as for neurotypical people. And "normal" changes based on culture and context, the very concepts used to describe symptoms will change over time.
I think it's easier for individuals to recognize that they are neurologically atypical, but that's simply not a diagnosis just yet, so they can be misdiagnosed a lot. And there are fads in psychiatry that follow popular culture somewhat, so if yesterday's ADHD is today's autism, the goalposts are moving.
So hey, maybe trying to put a single label on such a complicated spectrum will always be a problem, and we should provide help and resources to people who need it without trying to boil things down to one word.
A better solution would be standardize a backend apis and setup standards around how data is queried and stored. Next standardize how that data is presented to the user and how the user can manipulate that data. None of this requires a specific technology and sounds like decisions were made by people that don’t understand the problem they’re trying to solve or are being influenced by others with something to gain (like your big Drupal house).
This means that, while your experience totally sucked, it can't be generalized. Most people I've talked to from all over the country genuinely want to help. I assume it's the same in the US. But some centers offer very little training, and their legal means probably vary a lot by location.
That said, there is a lot they can do beyond calling an ambulance, but it still comes down to talking and guidance, no one can physically force people to get better, except maybe some institutions (debatable).