The 15th Five-Year Plan Is Officially Unveiled: A Full Life-Cycle Support System for Autism Takes Effect, Bringing New Policy Opportunities to Families of Children with Autism-Insurance Guide-Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Hospital Brain Center

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The 15th Five-Year Plan Is Officially Unveiled: A Full Life-Cycle Support System for Autism Takes Effect, Bringing New Policy Opportunities to Families of Children with Autism

2026-07-29 15:19:15

Recently, the State Council Working Committee on Disability issued the Plan for the Protection and Development of Persons with Disabilities During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period. For the first time, it established a dedicated section for the Autism Full Life-Cycle Care Promotion Action, building a nationwide full-cycle support system covering early screening, school-age inclusive education, adult employment and residential care, and family fallback support. This has thoroughly changed the previous fragmented approach in autism policies, which “focused on children while neglecting adults” and “focused on rehabilitation while lacking safeguards.” For a long time, families of autistic people across the country have generally faced difficulties such as uneven professional resources, difficulties with school inclusion, lack of support for adult placement, and heavy long-term care pressure. Many families travel across provinces to seek medical treatment and rehabilitation in other places.

Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Hospital has established China’s first multidisciplinary joint treatment center for autism, providing professional diagnosis and treatment services to children and families nationwide. Relying on the MDT multidisciplinary expert joint diagnosis and treatment model, it opens up full-chain services covering “screening—diagnosis—precision intervention—school inclusion—empowerment for older autistic individuals—family support.”

Today, the editor will combine the new policies of the 15th Five-Year Plan to interpret national-level policy benefits and actionable pathways for rehabilitation, education, and residential care.

A historic policy breakthrough
autism is listed in a dedicated section, achieving full life-cycle safeguards

For a long time, domestic policies related to autism have mostly focused on rehabilitation for young children aged 0–6. After children enter school and reach adulthood, safeguards such as employment, residential care, and long-term care have long been absent. “When parents grow old, where will the children go?” has become the core pain point for parents of autistic children across the country. This 15th Five-Year Plan achieves a major policy breakthrough by establishing autism as an independent dedicated section, launching five core actions, covering autistic people of all age groups, building a unified nationwide, lifelong long-term support system, and thoroughly filling the shortcomings of past policies.

1. Clearly define unified nationwide quantitative safeguard indicators:

The Plan sets the core development goals for 2030: the coverage rate of basic rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities will exceed 90%; the enrollment rate of school-age children with disabilities in compulsory education will be no less than 97%; residential care and nursing services for persons with severe disabilities will be substantially expanded; and 1 million person-times of employment for persons with disabilities will be added nationwide. It builds a solid nationwide safety net across the four dimensions of rehabilitation, education, employment, and residential care.

2. Fill two major nationwide gaps in people’s livelihood:

For the first time, community living and employment placement for older autistic individuals have been included in a national-level plan, ending the safeguard vacuum for adults with autism. At the same time, special needs trusts and notarized entrustment have been incorporated into the policy system, providing official institutional support for parents nationwide to address the challenge of lifelong care for their children after the parents’ passing.

In response to the current situation of uneven distribution of autism medical resources nationwide and bottlenecks encountered in traditional rehabilitation, Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Hospital has established China’s first multidisciplinary joint treatment center for autism. Based in the Greater Bay Area, serving the whole country, and going global, it aligns with cutting-edge international concepts, introduces advanced technologies such as precise neuromodulation of brain circuits and comprehensive anesthesia therapy, and provides multidisciplinary professional diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation services for autism under a “one person, one plan” approach, helping families of children with autism efficiently connect with the benefits of national policies.

Core safeguards for ages 0–18
Nationwide unified integration of medical care, rehabilitation, and education to overcome school placement adaptation challenges.

The 15th Five-Year Plan comprehensively improves the support system for minors with autism and implements standardized closed-loop services integrating medical care, rehabilitation, and education nationwide, covering the entire process from early screening and rehabilitation to school inclusion. It is currently the policy area with the strongest implementability and the broadest benefits for families, and is specifically divided into three core dimensions:

1. Nationwide implementation of a standardized early screening and intervention system:

The state requires medical institutions at all levels nationwide to strictly implement the norms for autism screening and intervention for children aged 0–6, open up green channels for screening, diagnosis, and rehabilitation assistance, and fill the shortcomings in professional resources in county-level and remote areas.

Relying on its MDT multidisciplinary expert team and internationally cutting-edge technologies, Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Hospital provides one-stop precise screening, standardized diagnosis, and developmental assessment for children nationwide, seizes the golden intervention period, and at the same time creates customized home-based intervention plans for families seeking medical treatment from out of town, ensuring that rehabilitation continues to advance after they return home.

2. Nationwide expansion of inclusive rehabilitation and opening up of cross-regional reimbursement channels:

3. Nationwide promotion of the integration of education and rehabilitation, and improvement of the teaching assistant and accompanying-study mechanism:

The 15th Five-Year Plan clearly establishes a unified nationwide mechanism for the admission and quality assurance of teaching assistant and accompanying-study personnel, providing authoritative policy support for children with autism nationwide to study in regular classes and for school inclusion. Shenzhen has taken the lead nationwide in issuing a municipal-level special plan for autism, steadily exploring pilot work on teaching assistants and accompanying study, and gradually improving a full-chain supporting system covering teacher training, school assessment, and funding subsidies.

Safety net for adults with autism:
dual safeguards of employment and residential care, easing lifelong caregiving anxiety.

The biggest highlight of this plan is that it thoroughly fills the long-standing policy gap for adults with autism, builds a dedicated support system for older autistic individuals nationwide, breaks the dilemma of “losing support upon adulthood,” and provides comprehensive bottom-line protection across three dimensions: employment, residential care, and lifelong entrustment:

1. Nationwide multi-tiered employment assistance for persons with disabilities is fully implemented:

The state requires government organs and public institutions in all localities to recruit persons with disabilities according to a specified proportion. Every city and county must establish at least one supported employment institution, open up jobs suitable for autistic youth such as data annotation, community services, and home-based employment, and support employment brands for persons with disabilities such as “Beautiful Workshop.”

2. Three-tier residential care system + nationwide coverage of respite services:

A unified nationwide service system of “home-based care — daytime care — centralized residential care” will be established. A co-care model for “elderly parents + children with disabilities” will be promoted, respite care will be included in the national-level service list, and short-term care services will be provided to families under long-term, high-intensity caregiving, effectively easing parents’ physical and mental pressure.

3. Special needs trusts solve the challenge of lifelong entrustment:

The plan, for the first time, promotes special needs trust services nationwide, supporting parents in planning their child’s lifelong care and asset arrangements through notarization and trusts, thoroughly solving the issue parents worry about most—care after they pass away. At present, pilot programs have been launched in multiple provinces and cities and will subsequently be fully rolled out and implemented nationwide.

Nationwide Dedicated Support for Families:
Multidimensional burden reduction, so that
families of children with autism no longer fight alone.

The 15th Five-Year Plan attaches great importance to the caregiving pressure on families affected by autism and introduces a unified nationwide inclusive family support policy to reduce the burden on families across the country through multiple dimensions, including skills empowerment, psychological counseling, and welfare assistance:

1. Regular family empowerment and psychological counseling:

The policy requires localities to regularly provide parent training, home-based rehabilitation guidance, and psychological counseling services.

2. Precise implementation of multi-dimensional welfare nationwide:

Relying on the nationwide unified two subsidy policies for persons with disabilities, rehabilitation assistance, and medical assistance, it comprehensively reduces the burden on families.

end

The implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan marks that China’s support for autism has officially entered a new era of all-age, full-coverage, and full-cycle assistance. Autism safeguards are no longer partial pilots or short-term assistance, but a long-term national policy facing the whole country. From early screening and rehabilitation for young children, to school inclusion during school age, to employment and residential care in adulthood, and lifelong family fallback support, the state has built a solid safety net layer by layer.

As a professional diagnosis and treatment platform serving the autistic community nationwide, Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Hospital will continue to closely follow the direction of the country’s new policies. Relying on its mature MDT multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment, standardized rehabilitation intervention, and full-cycle follow-up services, it will coordinate with disability assistance resources across the country to provide professional, inclusive, and actionable integrated diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation services for children with autism and their families from all over the country. It will ensure that the benefits of national policies truly take effect and accompany every child with autism to grow steadily and integrate into life ❤️

Original policy text??: The State Council Working Committee on Disability issued the Plan for the Protection and Development of Persons with Disabilities During the 15th Five-Year Plan Period.

上一篇：In 2026, Guangdong’s new rehabilitation assistance policy for children with cerebral palsy, brain disorders, and autism takes effect: subsidies are available for rehabilitation, surgery, and assistive devices.

下一篇：Shenzhen plans to introduce China’s first local regulation on full life-cycle care for autism