THE IMPACT OF HUMANIZED CARE ON THE EXPERIENCE OF FAMILIES WITH AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Abstract

This paper synthesizes evidence on the impact of humanized care on the experience of families with children on the autism spectrum, through a bibliographic review that organizes findings around care practices, environmental adaptations, communication strategies and multiprofessional arrangements, showing that low-cost, high-applicability measures such as predictable routines, visual communication supports, sensory stimulus control and reception protocols yield immediate improvements in children's tolerance to procedures and increase caregivers’ sense of safety, demonstrating that continuous professional development and the institutionalization of integrated care pathways enhance continuity of care and reduce fragmentation across levels of service, highlighting the role of psychosocial supports in mitigating caregiver burden and identifying research gaps, notably the shortage of longitudinal studies and cost-effectiveness evaluations of proposed adaptations, with implications for public policies that embed humanization within care pathways, for professional training programs and for future research that centers on family experience and includes caregivers as active participants in quality assessment.