Project background 

Most children with neurodevelopmental disabilities living in South Asia have no access to services. This means that families are not given the help they need to fully understand their child’s needs and know how best to support them. 

The NAMASTE project addresses this gap by developing and evaluating care pathways. This involves both screening and identification of neurodevelopmental disability in children, followed by family-based supports to help caregivers understand and support their child’s development. 

Specialist healthcare workers are scarce in many South Asian countries, so these pathways will be delivered by non-specialist community health workers, supported through training and supervision. 

Drawing on other projects 

This work builds upon a longstanding collaboration between Sangath India and The University of Manchester. Through this we have carefully adapted an autism programme developed for the UK to the South Asian context known as Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy (PACT). 

The resulting Parent-Mediated Autism Social Communication Intervention for Non-Specialists Plus (PASS Plus) programme, delivered by non-specialist health workers, is the first of its kind. It has shown real-world impact in two initial randomised controlled trials, with large-scale evaluation underway in New Delhi. Learn more about the COMPASS trial. 

The project also builds upon innovations by the World Health Organisation. This has led to the development and field-testing of Caregiver Skills Training, plus developments in screening and detection within low resource contexts, led by collaborators in La Trobe. 

The NAMASTE project also includes an important piece of work aimed at raising understanding and decreasing stigma around neurodevelopmental disabilities in the three countries through awareness-raising campaigns developed using community co-production. 

Social, political and economic context 

NAMASTE aims to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of a detection and intervention care pathway for neurodevelopmental disability and autism spectrum disorder in four contrasting health systems in South Asia.