PHMC has been awarded a five-year, $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Family Youth Services Bureau, to develop a first-of-its kind program for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to prevent teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Over the next five years, PHMC’s Philadelphia Area Sexual Health Initiative (PASHI) will work in collaboration with PHMC’s Research and Evaluation Group, and additional local researchers and practitioners to create an intervention called Promoting Awareness through Live Movement and Sound (PALMS) for Youth with ASD (PYA). This project will allow PASHI to develop and rigorously evaluate the intervention to be created with that goal that this will be the first evidence-based intervention for prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection among young people with ASD in the nation.

Read the press release for more information.