Effective,
scientifically backed treatment for autism exists (the
"Lovaas"
Method - a form of Applied Behavior Analysis). Lovaas behavioural
treatment
for autism is medically necessary and prescribed by physicians
because it
is the only treatment available that significantly improves this
biological
disorder. Lovaas behavioral treatment for autism is the most
thoroughly
documented treatment of children with autism. Scientific studies
document a
47% recovery rate from autism and a near 100% improvement rate
for
children who receive Lovaas early treatment.
The cost of
Lovaas-style therapy for autism is not covered by the
B.C.
Ministry of Health's provincial health care plan (British Columbia,
Canada).
This is serious discrimination against the mentally disabled
because
physical therapies are paid for by the government. Specifically,
according
to the Premier of British Columbia, the services paid for by the
government
include those of "physical therapists", "massage
therapists",
"Chiropractors",
"Naturopaths", and "Optometrists". None of these are
medical
doctors but, rather, are categorized by the government as "allied
health
professionals". "Lovaas-style" autism therapists are
"allied health
professionals"
and provide a crucial health service that is not paid for by
the
Ministry of Health or the Medical Services Plan. The conclusion:
children
with autism are currently excluded from a so-called universal
Canadian
health care system, during the critical, early years of their life
when a real
difference can be made towards recovery from autism.
Lovaas
behavioural treatment of autism must be covered by the
government
health insurance plan because it is medically necessary care (63
BC
phychiatrists have endorsed the Lovaas autism treatment method as
medically
necessary intervention that should be funded under medicare;
signatures
are on file). The prognosis of untreated autistic children is
bleak.
Autism has an organic biological base. Lovaas behavioural treatment
allows the
child to overcome the dysfunction, similar to the treatment of
individuals
who have suffered a brain injury or stroke. With these
individuals,
the brain is capable of compensating for the injury with
appropriate
therapy. Skills are learned or relearned in a slow and
methodical
process. The Lovaas method of autism treatment is not unlike the
treatment
for brain injuires and must be given appropriate status for
government
medical insurance coverage in Canada.
B.C.
parents who want the most effective autism treatment must
privately
pay for their child's therapy and also import experts from the
U.S., at
their own expense, to train a staff of therapists.
Catastrophic
medical costs are devastating B.C. families who choose
to fight
autism with the only scientifically proven treatment currently
available.
Comprehensive, accessible Health Care is not available to young
children
with autism despite a government run health plan that is supposedly
universal.
In the U.S., private health insurance has deemed lovaas-style
autism
treatment to be medically necessary and covers the cost of the
treatment.
Canadians should expect and demand no less from their government
run health
insurance system.
There is an
effective treatment for children afflicted with autism.
Thirty
years of research have documented the "Lovaas Method" of behavioural
treatment
for Autistic children.
The method,
pioneered by Dr. Ivar Lovaas (U.C.L.A.), is now widely
used
throughout the world and is remarkably successful. In the words of
David
Suzuki in an episode of "The Nature of Things" regarding this method
of autism
treatment:
Once it seemed like a life sentence. Now
we know that that sentence can
often be commuted, even lifted. Now we
know there is hope. As long as
we intervene early enough, intensively
enough, we can rescue many
children from the solitary confinement of
autism... Where are other
parents to turn -- parents without the
resources to hire trained
therapists. Somehow, we have to find the
money to help children with
autism in those crucial preschool years.
If we don't, the cost to all
of us of caring for an untreated adult
will be far greater, reaching
into the millions. The cost in terms of
human suffering is not to be
measured.
A Summary
of the 2 ground breaking studies: Children who received early,
intensive
autism treatment of the Lovaas-type (a form of Applied Behavioral
Analysis)
significant improved. In the landmark study that was done at
U.C.L.A.,*
47% of those children achieved normal intellectual and
educational
functioning, 40% were assigned to classes for the
language-delayed,
and 10% were put in classrooms for the retarded. In
contrast,
of the children who got the normally available services, only 2%
achieved
normal educational and intellectual function, 45% were put in
language-delayed
classes, and 53% were put in classrooms for the retarded.
At
follow-up, when the Lovaas-treated children were 11-1/2 years old, 44%
were
indistinguishable from average children on tests of intelligence and
adaptive
behavior - they were categorized as "recovered" from autism.
*Lovaas,
O.I. "Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual
functioning
in young autistic children", Journal of Clinical and Consulting
Psychology,
1987, 55, 3-9.
*McEachin,
J.J., Smith, T. and Lovaas, O.I. "Long-term outcome for children
with autism
who received early intensive behavioral treatment", American
Journal on
Mental Retardation, 1993, 97, 359-372.
The
Problem: The B.C. Ministry of Health does not cover the cost of this
intensive
therapy program. Educational institutions in B.C. do not train
therapists
in this treatment method. Parents must bring experts from the
U.S. to
train their own private therapists at their own expense.
The
Casualties: Families who are fighting hardest for their children's
recovery
from Autism, must deplete their savings, then borrow from friends,
family and
banks in order to pay for their child's Autism therapy. Although
medical
catastrophe often wipes out families in the U.S., everyone likes to
believe it
can't happen in Canada --- the reality is, it can...and it does.
There are
British Columbians facing devastating medical costs to provide
treatment
for their children. The stress and burden on families is immense!
When an
effective Autism therapy exists, yet treatment is not funded by the
Government
in a universal, accessible manner, young children become victims
of a
serious crime of omission -- they are condemned to live a life
imprisoned
by the condition of Autism.
A civilized
society cannot allow this type of neglect of special needs
children,
nor can it allow families who struggle against Autism to fight
alone, with
devastating family and financial consequences.