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MemberHi there sorry this is off topic of what is going on, but i wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with their children having dental work in the Childrens hospital? I am having to take my son there for dental work in January/February and was just curious if anyone had any good or bad experiences and any tips you may have for me! thanks so much
Alison sassarella@shaw.ca
MemberJust a quick thank you to Dr. Davies and Dr. Ursula Lee. I thought the segment with Michael Campbell on CKNW was very informative. I felt that the information that Campbell was asking for and allowed each of you to provide was exactly what the public needs to hear. Hopefully some of the myths spread by the government were dispelled for listening canadians.
Television and radio are simply not suitable for the type of detail and research that is needed to understand these issues. Its important for all of us who plan to speak on radio talk shows, on TV or in newspaper interviews be prepared to pack in as much information as possible into a quick "sound byte".
Short, succint and informative… make the most of our time in the light as the media is fickle and they will forget us and our adorable children if we do not remain active.
MemberASBC North Shore Lecture Series
Monday November 22; 7-9pm
Peter J Peters Room
West Vancouver Memorial Library
1950 Marine Drive/22nd
***Parents ONLY Session***"Holy Cow, they Ruled Against Our Kids!"
On Monday November 22 lawyer, and Counsel for the Respondents,
Birgitta von Krosigk from North Shore Law will be talking about the
Supreme Court of Canada's ruling in "The Attorney General of British
Columbia et al v. Connor Auton et al" and what that means to
past, present and future autism medical treatment funding at home
in BC, and across the land.A limited number of copies of the judgement will be available; we
encourage you to bring your own copy of the ruling to follow along.
Judgements are available at: http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/cgi-bin/disp.pl/en/rec/html/2004scc078.wpd.html?query=%22autism%22&langue=en&selection=&database=en/jug&method=all&retour=/csc-scc/cgi-bin/srch.pl?language=en~~method=all~~database=en%2Fjug~~query=autismCoffee and donuts to be provided and general discussion to follow the
presentation.Please know that this is a ***Parents ONLY Session***.
Hope you can join us.
tamara & anissa
MemberI have been reading over all of the posts this morning and I wanted to respond to Janet who said that she is nervous regarding what the government will do next.
Attention all parents whose children are under the age of 6 (because most of you haven't been in this fight long enough to have suffered the manipulations of the government!)
BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!!
okay perhaps a bit dramatic but I must warn you… yes your funding could be in jeopardy. I realize that Gordon Campbell made a statement about not deserting these kids etc etc. but I for one have learned that Gordon Campbell is not to be trusted.
When we were first thrown into this world, the NDP was in power. The NDP gave families nothing. Under their government we were ignored, harassed and blown off. FEAT tried many, many times to approach them and discuss funding, treatment and the needs of our children. The NDP were horrific!
The Liberals, were, typical of politicians (my apologies if any of you are politicians) quick to jump on our bandwagon. What a great opportunity to look the government look bad?!?! Adorable small children DENIED their rights, desperate parents receiving no funding (and I mean NO funding!) families moving to the US… it was an oppostion party's dream! They were supportive, they backed US up.
yes you are reading correctly.
The Liberals scorched the NDP for their position on AUTON and publicly chastised them. As election time approached, many promises were made, quite specifically I might add.
The Liberals won, they took power… I actually cried that day thinking that finally, FINALLY justice would be done.
What a fool I was. All of those promises vanished. Those politicians who welcomed us and fought for our cause? They didn't need us and refused to return our calls. Their criticisms of the NDP for fighting Auton? Vanished as they led this province into the appeals court.
Gordon Campbell's promises? Gone like smoke.
Yes we received funding, minimal funding, cut off at the age of 6. But that was due to publicity around Auton and FEAT and the government seizing an opportunity for some good press, conveniently RIGHT before Auton went to the appeals court.
So do I trust Gord when he says that he will not pull funding, not on your life.
many of us have ridden on the coat tails of the families who came before us. These families have endured harassment, insults, huge financial burdens and have created what we enjoy today.
The fact that there are local consultants – thank the families who began therapy 9 years or more ago and brought a consultant from the US who personally trained many of these fantastic consultants in our area
Information available on ABA when your child is diagnosed? thank those families once again because there was none when we received diagnosis.
extensive media coverage of our children's plight? thank those families who fought to be heard many years ago.
funding? despite its limitations! when my first child was diagnosed with autism, there was none. and I mean NONE.
Auton, achieved great things for our children. The Supreme Court of Canada has let us down but those families who fought have paved a road. I know that many of them will continue to fight but it is time for all of us to join this fight. many parents have had a luxury of being able to sit back and not fight and have said my child receives funding the government is being good to me, i have no reason to fight.
Those days are over. You may still receive funding but know that at ANY time, this could be in jeopardy.
We can't expect those exhausted parents to fight for us, its our turn.
( BTW: Six is not so old. Those of you who saw my son on CBC… he is six. He is, according to the government, no longer treatable. I should tell you that over the last 6 months my son has made such significant gains that when our Consultant was in his school this year she was amazed at how well he was doing in the class, keeping up with his peers academically, maintaining control of himself etc. He is not untreatable.)
MemberDoes this court decision mean that the BC government can now choose to keep the current funding levels or decrease them when the current contracts are up? My understanding is that they would have to honour the current contracts that families have signed. Do you think they would remove the current level of funding? I guess we need to start writing our MLA's – especially with an election coming.
What did you think of Gordon Campbell's comment's on this? He made some vague comments about not letting the kids down – and something about individualized funding. It makes me nervous though.MemberDoes this court decision mean that the BC government can now choose to keep the current funding levels or decrease them when the current contracts are up? My understanding is that they would have to honour the current contracts that families have signed. Do you think they would take back the funding? I guess we need to start writing our MLA's – especially with an election coming.
What did you think of Gordon Campbell's comment's on this? He made some vague comments about not letting the kids down – and something about individualized funding. It makes me nervous though.MemberHi everyone, as Andrew already posted, CBC is airing a documentary tonight on the National. The focus is on Auton.
Please watch it and let CBC know what you think of their coverage, i.e. did they cover this story fairly? What information should they have included/what did they leave out etc.
Less than 48 hours till the decision comes down… for all of you in Auton, regardless of this decision, my children thank you for your hard work. No matter what happens, the fight is far from over.
MemberTo add a few comments to the discussion of effect of amount of treatment hours:
-Quality of treatment has a significant impact on the results of treatment. While I have not seen any studies to back this up, in other words, these are my anecdotal observations, 40 hours of poorly designed treatment (i.e. poor quality ABA, possibly from those who are not properly qualified to provide such services) is not equal to 40 hours of high quality, science based ABA treatment.
-again, I have no science to back this up, it is my opinion only, but I would argue that 20 hours of quality treatment is better than 40 hours of misguided treatment.
-40 hours per week is not a guarantee of improved results but it is a significant factor.
-It is important to note that number of hours are not the only factor of the Lovaas et al study that contributed to its results: parents participated actively in the treatment model, allowing therapy to effectively occur, at least in some cases, throughout most of the child's waking hours. Parental involvement in treatment is crucial. I have worked on teams where we have strong instructors but little parental involvement and weak teams where parental involvement is high. Again, no science to back this up, but I think some of the greatest successes I have seen have been on teams where parental involvement is high. And by success I do not necessarily mean loss of diagnosis but improvement in quality of life.
-at UCLA, treatment was delivered by students and researchers who participated in a minimum level of coursework before working in the clinic and were trained and supervised by those with extensive experience. Here in BC, we recruit from a wide variety of sources but rarely do we recruit individuals who have studied behaviorism (never mind applied behavior analysis) in an academic setting. In other words, we are often starting from scratch. We are also not trained to the extent as those who provided training and supervision at the young autism project. Simply put, we do not have the same knowledge and training base as they had at UCLA. Often, we work around issues of staff shortages, there is a lack of adequatly trained Senior instructors, therefore many teams are struggling to do the best they can but may not be instructing at an optimal rate due to training deficiencies.
Keep in mind that 40 hours of quality, effective, consistent, scientifically based ABA treatment is the ideal but it is very hard to attain. Focus your efforts on quality first and then provide the most intensive amount you can afford. I have seen children who have done exceptionally well on less than 40 hours a week (i.e. 25-30) however I can also say that under more optimal conditions, they may have gone even further.
We must do the best we can, and I often recommend to parents to build in as much intensity as financially, emotionally and physically possible but to remember that therapy rarely ends after 2 years as it did in Lovaas et al (for those who lost diagnosis). In our reality, therapy can go on for many years and for some children last throughout childhood. The ability to make it through the long haul is critically important.
Provide the maximum amount of hours that you can, continually monitor your treatment for quality (i.e. video monitoring, hopefully having access to a strong team leader who can guide and train your team, and ensure your consultant is qualified and knowledgeable) and stay away from guilt trips. A home based ABA program can easily overrun your life, don't let it. Your child's treatment will take priority, of course, but you must also find a way to make that liveable because like it or not, this is and will be your life for some time and if after 1 year you are burnt out and unhappy, your child will suffer regardless of how much money you have put into your program.
Perhaps this discussion will become mute on friday when the Supreme Court of Canada announces its decision… wouldn't it be great if parents no longer had to settle for something less than what their child deserves?
MemberHi everyone, I have been successful billing 500.00 (per person under the plan receiving services from your Consultant) per year for Consultant fees and 500.00 per year, per person, for Phsyc. Assessments. Our extended medical is through Great West Life. If you have extended through this company, they will accept receits that are up to 24 months old. I am on my third year now getting these expenses covered. I'm sure there's other companies that would also cover these expenses as well, give it a try.
cobrattack@telus.netNatasha
Zoe's momMemberFEAT of BC workshop November 13 at Douglas College almost FULL:
Thank you to all who have registered for the workshop this saturday. There are a limited number of spaces still available. If you are interested in attending the workshop this saturday, please download the registration form and fax in your information. You will need to pay at the workshop with cash or cheque made out to FEAT of BC.
The spaces available will be first come first serve so please do not delay in faxing in your information.
At this point in time I can not guarantee that registration at the door will be available as it will depend on the number of faxes received over the next 3 days.
And yes, there will be an intermediate workshop in vancouver in the near future (January 8) so please plan on attending the basic workshop if you plan on attending the intermediate workhsop in January.
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