[FEAT BC Admin]

In this topic area, discussion is about the fight to secure Government funding for your A.B.A. treatment program. It is also the place to talk about your thoughts and ideas about how to establish new Government programs specifically designed for autism treatment.

This is the place to hear input from parents who have fought for funding and won, as well as those who have fought for funding and would like to share their horror stories. There is a tendency to not share success stories once funding is secured. Please fight that tendency. By sharing our experience, we all become stronger.

 

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—-By FEAT BC (Freeman) on Saturday, January 3, 1998 – 03:16 pm:

-Hi everyone!

These are some things to think about in your dealings with government to help you to obtain support for your child’s Autism Treatment Program. These are my personal opinions and do not represent those of FEAT of BC or any other organization.

Many of these observations are based on my personal experiences (and I believe it poetic justice to help every parent avoid being systematically abused by their social worker the way I was).

Good luck to everyone! (Let’s all pull back the curtain on the Wizard of OZ).

Sabrina

 

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How To Fight for Funding for Autism Treatment and Appropriate School Placement

1. Establish a Paper Trail

Always take notes, documenting major points of all conversations with government and school officials.

This includes casual, in person conversations with social workers as well as ALL telephone conversations. All key points of discussion must be written down in your notes including the date and time of the discussion. This includes what was agreed upon, as well as what was not agreed upon.

Then the notes should be used to write a letter recapping the substance and content of the conversation. This letter must then be mailed or faxed to the person with whom you had the conversation. In addition, a copy must be kept in your file (see section on the icci game).

Why?

It is important to formalize the interaction between you and Government officials. In addition, everyone is put on notice that they must closely adhere to their responsibilities, regulations and laws., Furthermore, they must then consider the paper trail you have created. This lets everyone know that the interaction can become public and that any abuses of power and authority can be formally appealed and/or publicized.

In other words, they canit use discretion unfairly under the cloak of secrecy.

2. Submit all Requests in Writing

All your requests for your child must be submitted formally in writing with a copy included in your file and a copy, if necessary, sent to their immediate superiors.

3. Set Deadlines for Action

All formal requests for action must have a reasonable deadline set for that action. If no action or response is received by the deadline you have set (two weeks for example), then you will interpret the lack of response as a formal declination (a formal NO) of your requests.

Why Set Deadlines?

When bureaucrats do not want to do something, they will stall by ignoring you and your request. (As an aside, in the study of the bureaucracy, this is known as ithe power to do nothingi). They can string you along for years. When you have determined that the person you are interacting with is not inclined to help you or is not dealing in good faith, then you must take the initiative and formally label his/her behavior as obstructionist and de facto as a declination (a NO to your requests). This allows you to move to the next level of authority on your timetable to present your case. This takes the power to do nothing away from the bureaucrat with whom you are dealing. Simple stated, a bureaucrat who stalls and does nothing becomes irrelevant (use your invisible spray) and you move on to the next level of authority.

How to icci?

A cc. is a copy of your letter sent to someone other than the person you are writing. You put the cc. at the bottom left-hand corner of your letter followed by 2 spaces and the name of the person or people to whom you want to send a copy of the letter.

Who to icci to?

Sometimes it is best not to icci at all, especially in the early stages of the relationship (for example, your first letter to a social worker requesting assistance). This gives them the opportunity to do the right thing and does not present you as an overly combative person. When you start to run into problems, it is a good idea to send the icci to the 2 immediate superiors of the person you are having problems with. We do not recommend icciing all the way up the chain of command, since you want to give them a chance to solve the problem at the local level.

Why send a icci copy?

The reason for playing the icci game is that you want your interactions with the official to be known to his superior and possibly to other organizations so that 1) their action or inaction becomes a matter of record and 2) the individual knows he is being monitored. This helps minimize abuses of power and authority and helps encourage the official to meet their obligations and do the right thing.

What is the sequence of letters?

Find out the chain of command of the particular bureaucracy you are battling.

TOP

Minister
Deputy Minister
Children’s Ministry’s local region chain of command, all the way down to the District Supervisor
and Social Worker
Contacts can be found at the government directory: http://www.dir.gov.bc.ca/

BOTTOM

Start at the bottom and climb. At the Regional Operating Officer (ROO) level (once you have been declined) you have to decide whether to jump up to the top, threaten and then go to the media, or both. A word of wisdom: DO NOT BLUFF. If you are not willing to go all the way, they will ‘smell’ this. You must be prepared to take it right up to the Minister and beyond.

Documentation from Experts:

In your arsenal to fight for your child, it is wise to get his/her pediatrician and/or psychiatrist to write a letter on your childis behalf. In addition, any other experts who know your child and are sympathetic to what you are trying to do should become involved.

When to hire a lawyer?

If money is not an issue, you can hire a lawyer when you get to the area manager level. Make sure that you have a paper trail so the lawyer has something to work with. Also, have the lawyer give F.E.A.T. of B.C. a call, and we will send him/her information that will help.

If money is an issue (as it is for most of us running autism treatment programs), you might want to hire a lawyer once you have been turned down by the Minister.

How to hire a lawyer?

The type of lawyer needed is a litigator, or trial lawyer. S/he does not need to be an expert in autism, or special needs; s/he needs to be experienced in suing governments, and enjoys being in court. Word of mouth is a good way to find a lawyer.

Topic

[Deleted User]

To Anonymous on Friday, September 19, 2003 – 07:53 pm:

You do not need to be personally versed or enough to know about the latest court ruling (with respect to legalities etc), to ask for 100% funding for your child. Simply ask for 100% funding, and back it up with copies of your bills.

Do not get into any discussion with your social worker as to what the Anderson court decision means. Her understanding of the decision is irrelevant no matter what happens. Do not try to defend it with the social worker, you have neither the time or the engery to do so, and why bother as she will not be making any decisions no matter what you say.

What the social worker thought when she read the Anderson case on the web is not important. All you need to do is put your request in writting. (copy my earlier letter or change it to suit your your needs), or write your own if you do not like mine.

I have not yet heard of any new funding program for October, but I do know that the government legal department is working on something.(Or at least, I was so told.) What it is they are working on, I do not know. Monday may be the deadline to file an appeal of the Anderson case, so I will be watching for that next week. An appeal may not hapen, as the Court of Appeal will uphold Auton in any case.

I may be writing to the Minister eventually, but I perfer to leave a paper trail of "refusals" or perhaps "the run around" by asking through the normal channels first. I may also write to the government legal department, but not yet.

Every letter I write, I will post on this Board, so that other parents with skills in different professions than mine can benefit from my efforts.

My letter that follows up on the first verbal reply that I received from my social worker will be written and posted by Monday. I will post all my letters immediately after sending it to the government.

Finally, do not let any government employee deter you from your objective of sending your letters higher and higher up the chain of comand, until there is no place else to go except to court. You can then go to court or choose not to at the last minute.

However, IF any money will be paid out by the government to families not involved in Anderson or Auton, it is likely to go first to the families that asked first, for the simple reason that they already have your paper work. The government is not likely to go out looking for additional families that have not asked for funding.

Joyce Dassonville GN LLB
Family Law and Health & Disability Law

Address:# 114 – 8532 120th Street
Surrey, British Columbia
V3W 3N5
Phone: (604) 598-8623
Fax: (604) 598-8624
Email: joyce@dassonvillelaw.ca
Web Page:www.dassonvillelaw.ca

[Deleted User]

I am getting extremely confused with respect to the lastest ruling on Government funding. Joyce, you have been considerably helpful with respect to this issue, however, I am personally not versed enough to know this latest court ruling (with respect to legalities etc) and how to defend it with the social worker. I have talked to her today and directed her to the website you provided. She scanned a few paragraphs and stated that from what she could gather on this is that the judgement is what the Government has been doing all along!! She figures if it hasn't allotted a $$$ amount then it doesn't mean much. I asked the question, then why has this gone to the appeals court in the first place? To fund the entire treatment plan regarless of cost. Is this not correct? No answer. Her suggestion to me today was to direct me to the new "individualized funding" that will be available to SOME families with disabilities in October. I have not yet looked this up and have no idea what this is. Has anyone heard of this as yet? How can we get someone to interpret exactly what this court ruling means? This feels like it could go on forever and famlies will never see relief. She also mentioned that I should direct my letter to the Minister himself for a response. Any info would be great. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

I am getting extremely confused with respect to the lastest ruling on Government funding. Joyce, you have been considerably helpful with respect to this issue, however, I am personally not versed enough to know this latest court ruling (with respect to legalities etc) and how to defend it with the social worker. I have talked to her today and directed her to the website you provided. She scanned a few paragraphs and stated that from what she could gather on this is that the judgement is what the Government has been doing all along!! She figures if it hasn't allotted a $$$ amount then it doesn't mean much. I asked the question, then why has this gone to the appeals court in the first place? To fund the entire treatment plan regarless of cost. Is this not correct? No answer. Her suggestion to me today was to direct me to the new "individualized funding" that will be available to SOME families with disabilities in October. I have not yet looked this up and have no idea what this is. Has anyone heard of this as yet? How can we get someone to interpret exactly what this court ruling means? This feels like it could go on forever and famlies will never see relief. She also mentioned that I should direct my letter to the Minister himself for a response. Any info would be great. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

I am writing to reply to the question of Tammy Fazio.

It is not surprising that the front line social workers have not heard anything about the recent Anderson decision. From the government point of view why hurry to pass on important information?

Be sure to quote the fact that your social worker knew nothing about the court decisions when you confirm your conversation in writing.

All BC court decisions are available on line at the British Columbia Superior Courts Home Page: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/. Every government employee with Internet access could download the court’s decisions if they choice to do so. Be sure to quote in your letter that you downloaded the decisions from the web address that you are now copying to them. Also send them copies by fax or email (hardcopy if you have no access to fax or email) of the actual decisions so as to avoid any further delays. You should not have to provide government employees with copies of information that is accessible to any member of the public with a computer and internet access, but that is not the issue here. Preventing any further delay to the receipt of your funding for your ABA/IBI program is the relevant issue.

All BC court decisions immediately receive an unreported Citation. The unreported Citations for the two relevant cases are as follows:

Anderson et al. v. Attorney General of British Columbia, 2003 BCSC 1299, Docket: L030566, Registry: Vancouver, Date: 20030822

Auton et al. v. AGBC, 2000 BCSC 1142, Docket: C984120, Registry: Vancouver , Date: 20000726

In addition to your post and request for further assistance, I have also fielded several phone calls with requests for information. I want to stress that it is imperative that you put all of your communication in writing. Whenever you have verbal conversations, be sure to follow them up with written confirmation of the conversations. A failure to keep a “paper trail” will come back to haunt you at a later date.

Finally, today was the date that my social worker and I agreed she would get back to me. I received a verbal reply late this afternoon, as per our agreement. I will confirm that verbal reply in writing and post my reply to the FEAT Board ASAP, for the information and assistance of those families who are unsure of what to do next.

Good luck with your applications for ABA/IBI funding.

Yours truly,

Joyce Dassonville GN LLB
Lawyer & Mediator

Address:# 114 – 8532 120th Street
Surrey, British Columbia
V3W 3N5
Phone: (604) 598-8623
Fax: (604) 598-8624
Email: joyce@dassonvillelaw.ca
Web Page:www.dassonvillelaw.ca

[Deleted User]

Joyce – thanks you so much for all your information posted recently. I have finally talked personally to my social worker today and she has said that she has not heard (nor have her supervisors) anything about this new court ruling. She states that sometimes there is a lengthy process in the information getting filtered down to all offices. she also mentioned that I was the first call that their office has received with respect to the new court ruling. She asked where this information could be made available to her and her superiors so that they can follow through. If you know, could you let me know so that I may pass this on to them. It seems odd that it should have to be done in this fashion – seeing that they should have sources internally to contact but what can you do?? Thank you.

[Deleted User]

I am writing to the lady with A. as her first initial. The telephone message you left me was not clear and I get a wrong number when I tried to phone you. If you still have questions for me, please phone me again, or you could try emailing to my home email address above.

Joyce Dassonville GN LLB
Family Law and Health & Disability LAw

Address:# 114 – 8532 120th Street
Surrey, British Columbia
V3W 3N5
Phone: (604) 598-8623
Fax: (604) 598-8624
Email: joyce@dassonvillelaw.ca (not yet active)
Web Page:www.dassonvillelaw.ca (not yet active)

[Deleted User]

For those of you who have not read the Anderson case, or have read it and did not understand it, I have copied and pasted the court order which resulted from the written decision. The order was actually included right in the written text of the judgement of the court, not a usual procedure.

The Anderson Court Order is as folows:

1. The Crown has violated the infant petitioners' rights under s. 15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from and after July 26, 2000.
2. Each infant petitioner is entitled to government funded treatment in the nature of that which they have or had been receiving provided that such treatment should still be useful.
3. The Crown is required to fund such treatment for each infant petitioner from July 26, 2000, provided that the infant petitioner establishes usefulness of treatment by a written opinion from a physician supported by a written opinion from a qualified paediatrician or psychologist, such treatment to continue until the medical view is that no further significant benefit in alleviating the autistic condition can reasonably be expected from continuation of treatment.
4. The Crown may challenge the efficacy, intensity and duration of treatment of any of the infant petitioners by a process reached by consent of the parties, or failing agreement, through a hearing in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

What does this mean who the families that were not part of the Anderson case?

1. The written reasons make it clear that the same declaration of a denial of constitutional rights will apply to all children with autism in the province of BC.

2. The words "is entitled to government funded treatment in the nature of that which they have or had been receiving" may be problematic for those families who do not have have any ABA/IBI program in place as they could not afford to put one in place. Just how do you obtain reinbursement for a program "in the nature of that which they have or had been receiving" if your child has never received the benefit of some programming.

My advise is to begin the process to put together an ABA/IBI program immediately. If possible use the $20,000.00 before the age of 6 or the $6,000.00 after the age of six that you received to get your home ABA/IBI programming up and running. Once your program is in place, you then can better claim that your child is entitled to a program reinbursement "in the nature of that which they have or had been receiving".

3. The statement that says: "establishes usefulness of treatment by a written opinion from a physician supported by a written opinion from a qualified paediatrician or psychologist, such treatment to continue until the medical view is that no further significant benefit in alleviating the autistic condition can reasonably be expected from continuation of treatment",
clearly means that you must have medical/psychologist back up and support for your program. You cannot simply go off and put together your own program without written documentation from the specialists that your child will benefit and/or will continue to benefit from such a program. Therefore be sure to obtain the necessary medical/psychology back up you need, prior to asking for reinbursement.

4. The statement that the "Crown may challenge the efficacy, intensity and duration of treatment" means that you must be prepared to defend the program you have/or will put in place, and further that your professionals may be called upon to defend the program that they are recomending.

My above comments should not be taken as legal advice for any family. The circumstances of each family are different and may involve other considerations than the information I have noted above. My comments here are general comments and general information only, from a mother of an autistic child, familiar with fighting for her child's legal rights.

My final advice is to begin putting your ABA/IBI programs in place ASAP, even if it means that you have to rob Peter to pay Paul, in your family budget. Regardless of the legal issues, every child with autism will benefit from the receipt of medically necessary treatment at an earlier date rather than a later date. When considering the legal issues, there has been no better time to commence an ABA/IBI program and to then seek reinbursement. The most likely chance of seeing reinbursement for your ABA/IBI program from the government in a reasonable period of time is now. (hopefully fast enough to keep the wolf from the door, when you take the family finances out on a limb).

There is no guarantee that the government will reinburse families as ordered by the courts to do so, either at all or in a timely manner. There is also no guarantee that the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold the Auton case, but just when are there guarantees in life anyway?

After the Anderson case, this is clearly the time from a legal point of view to say "ME TOO."

Good luck to all of you in your efforts to get ABA/IBI programs established immediately if you have not already done so, and to all of you in your efforts to seek reinbursement of the very high cost of your ABA/IBI programs.

Yours truly,

Joyce Dassonville GN LLB
Family Law and Health & Disability Law

Address:# 114 – 8532 120th Street
Surrey, British Columbia
V3W 3N5
Phone: (604) 598-8623
Fax: (604) 598-8624
Email: joyce@dassonvillelaw.ca
Web Page:www.dassonvillelaw.ca

[Louise Watson]

just to add to grahams post i have also got to thank joyce and i too have called my social worker and she too sais she is getting a hold of her supervisor for further assistance. i will also keep updating you on my progress Louise(liams mum)

[Graham Egli]

First a thank you to Joyce for all the great info recently.
Second I contacted my sons social worker and requested info re: funding both retro and forward and referred to the Anderson judgement. He in turn replied that he had passed my request onto his supervisor for handling. I will keep you all posted as things develop.

Graham
Thor's Dad

[Deleted User]

Below I have copied and pasted the leter I sent today asking for funding of my daughter's ABA/IBI program to the Ministry of Children & Family Development Children’s Community Living Services.

The letter below was sent on family letterhead, not my lawyer's letterhead. I want the social worker to feel like she wants to help, even if she is not allowed to. Note how clear and firm the letter is, notwithstanding that it is still very polite. No need to antagonize the front line worker who you will have to deal with time and time again.

Please feel free to copy/Plagiarize my letter or any parts of it, if you feel it is of any asistance to you in your efforts to obtain your ABA/IBI funding as per the Anderson decision.

Attention: [name of social worker]

Dear: Ms.

RE: [name of child] and payment of IBI Funding pursuant to the Auton (BCCA) and Anderson (BCSC) decisions

Further to our telephone conversation earlier today, I am writing to commence the necessary government administrative procedures required to obtain the full funding of my daughter’s IBI “medically necessary treatment” as per the above noted court decisions. I have enclosed the accounts setting out the amount that I have been billed for IBI services for my daughter [name of child], while resident in the province of BC, all dated after July 26, 2000. Please note that the Accounts from [name of US provider]are in US dollars.

Enclosed are the following accounts:

1. [List of accounts]

Please confirm that it will not be necessary to commence yet another court judicial review. The court in the Anderson decision made it quite clear that it ‘… should not be necessary to litigate the same issues time after time’. I am aware of no reason as to why there should be any delay in payment. If you are aware of any reasons that would justify a delay in full payment, please advise me immediately so any outstanding issues can be dealt with forthwith.

To further, quote the Court in Anderson:

… I am persuaded that the Attorney General should not be permitted to re-litigate the issue of its treatment of autistic children. In a case such as this, there are numerous potential claimants. There is a single respondent. The principal issues are common in all cases. They were fully explored in Auton and, subject to revision on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, must stand. It should not be necessary to litigate the same issues time after time on the basis that the claimants are different.

The Court in Anderson then further stated in its decision the following:

The nature of the constraints under which a court must operate when fixing a remedy under s. 24(1) of the Charter is not defined. One should expect that where one crafts a remedy in relation to the violation of equality rights of specific members of a group comprised of many individuals, one can reasonably anticipate that others in the group will justifiably say "me too". That is the case presently. In so far as the care requirements of these petitioners are concerned, I see no reason why the petitioners before me should be entitled to anything less than the Court of Appeal has afforded the Auton petitioners. Nothing that I can discern from the majority reasons of the Court of Appeal identifies a characteristic that sets the Auton petitioners apart from those before me. Affording any lesser relief would further the discrimination and inequality that have been associated with the treatment of autism and autism spectrum disorder.

Finally, the Court in Anderson ordered as follows:

An order is granted in the following terms:

1. The Crown has violated the infant petitioners' rights under s. 15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from and after July 26, 2000.

2. Each infant petitioner is entitled to government funded treatment in the nature of that which they have or had been receiving provided that such treatment should still be useful.

3. The Crown is required to fund such treatment for each infant petitioner from July 26, 2000, provided that the infant petitioner establishes usefulness of treatment by a written opinion from a physician supported by a written opinion from a qualified paediatrician or psychologist, such treatment to continue until the medical view is that no further significant benefit in alleviating the autistic condition can reasonably be expected from continuation of treatment.

4. The Crown may challenge the efficacy, intensity and duration of treatment of any of the infant petitioners by a process reached by consent of the parties, or failing agreement, through a hearing in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

When I submitted my application for the $6,000.00 of IBI funding that your department was offering in April 2003, I gave you copies of my daughter’s medical records setting out the requirement of IBI therapy. If you require additional medical and or psychology reports, please advise me immediately and I will ask the professionals, who are currently treating Dominique to prepare new updated reports forthwith. I trust that the medical report will be paid for by the party requiring the report.

The enclosed accounts as well as the medical reports submitted at a much earlier date would appear to be the documentation required as per the Anderson decision. If additional documentation is required I trust you will notify me on or before Wednesday, September 17, 2003 as per our discussion on timing.

It is unquestionably a major step forward for children with autism to finally have their constitutional rights to receive medically necessary treatment dealt with by way of administrative procedures without the necessity of resorting to legal action. Prompt and full payment for their medically necessary treatment by the BC government will also be a major step forward for children with autism.

Finally, can you please confirm where I should have the professionals direct their future accounts? Should they begin sending their accounts directly to your department or another government department?

As per our telephone conversation earlier today, I understand that you are extremely busy this week, but have free time in the early part of next week. I know that you fully intend to assist me in every way possible to receive the full court ordered funding for the IBI treatment that my daughter urgently requires, therefore if I do not hear back from you in writing on or before Wednesday, September 17, 2003, I will take your lack of response as a refusal to attend to this matter imposed on you by your superiors. I sincerely hope that your superiors will not tie your hands in this matter. I can think of no other reason that would explain a delay in your response as per our telephone discussion on timing.

I look forward to hearing back from you, on or before Wednesday, September 17, 2003, as per our discussion on timing. I thank-you in advance for your much needed assistance and look forward to working with you in the future, as my daughter’s IBI therapy will be ongoing for some time yet.

Yours truly,

Joyce Dassonville

Joyce Dassonville GN LLB

Lawyer & Mediator

Address:# 114 – 8532 120th Street
Surrey, British Columbia
V3W 3N5
Phone: (604) 598-8623
Fax: (604) 598-8624
Email: joyce@dassonvillelaw.ca
Web Page:www.dassonvillelaw.ca

[Author]

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