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MemberI am not sure why I received a message from: a group of parents in the Lower mainland called,"Society Making Autism Redity Treatable(SMART).
According to their website http://www.smartsociety.bc.ca
I was disgusted to see that the Ministry for Children and Families has giving them a grant to fund their programs. The programs they provide are: 'horseback riding therapy,"swimming therapy",gymnastics therapy", non of which have scientific data or .
This government has to be held accountable for the lack of intelligible decisions they continue to make every day, while jepordizing the well being and health of our children.
This is and insult for us as parents,for our children and for the Judiciary System who has already ruled in two occations that the government has to pay for medically necessary treatment (ABA),for our children regarless of their age.
While I applaud the parents for coming together and putting this organization together. I don't agree with the therapies they do, as this therapies only have anecdotal data .It is a free country and the parents can do whatever they want.
The government on the other hand needs to obey the law, and stop wasting our children's money and time.
MemberWe have just recently moved to North Vancouver from Nova Scotia. WE have our ABA Consultant in place and are getting up and running with our home program. What we do not have is a family doctor for both our daughter with autism and the rest of the family.
Can anyone recomend a family doctor that can be used as a valuable resource for our daughter as well as make a good doctor for the rest of the family. Obviously a doctor in North Vancouver woudl be preferable but great doctors in whatever location are always worth considering.
Recomendations for a dentist who has experience with children with autism with very limited language would also be appreciated.
Thank-you in advance for your help. Please email me at dassonville@telus.net
MemberHi, I am an ABA Therapist with 2 1/2 years experience, and am looking to add a few more clients from the Chilliwack or Abbotsford areas. I'm available to work as of May 1st, 2003 though if needed, earlier may be possible. I have experience in lead therapist positions as well as designing programs. Due to scheduling I can only fit one more client in after school hours so I am looking mainly to work with children not yet in full time school. If you are interested please email Summer at sumbum@shaw.ca
MemberAutism Ruling Sets Precedent For Funding, Says NDP
[From the Canadian News Wire.]
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/April2003/13/c0631.htmlPRESS RELEASE:
Autism ruling sets precedent for funding, says NDP
TORONTO, April 13 /CNW/ – The Conservative government should heed the
signal from the Ontario Superior Court and allow medically necessary treatment
for children with autism to continue beyond the age of six, following a
precedent-setting ruling by Justice Arthur Gans, says NDP Health Critic
Shelley Martel. Martel, along with Niagara Centre MPP Peter Kormos, has been campaigning for the past year to have autism treatment, Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI), covered by OHIP and continued for as long as necessary under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. Today the two issued a call to Community, Family and Children's Services Minister Brenda Elliott to place a moratorium on cutting any child off once he or she turns six and to fully fund all families in need.
They called on Premier Ernie Eves to end the need for a current court challenge by parents. "Just fund this necessary and beneficial treatment for autistic children," Kormos said. "Then financially drained parents wouldn't be forced into court to get what, we believe, they're entitled to," said Martel. "We have close to 100 families at the Ontario Human Rights Commission right now one on one demanding an end to the discrimination that is denying their children medically necessary treatment for autism," Martel said. "This is clearly a health issue and parents shouldn't have to mortgage their homes to pay for treatment."-30-
For further information: Sunday contact: Shelley Martel, (416) 407-6296; Peter Kormos, (905) 980-1667; Monday: Sheila White, (416) 325-2503
Memberhttp://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mandel.html
Court stops province from cutting off publicly funded treatment for autism treatment
Andrews last hopeBy MICHELE MANDEL — Toronto Sun
Andrew Lowrey now has a chance at a bright future — and a decision in his case has just opened the door for many other autistic children just like him.
In a stunning judgment, Ontario Superior Court Justice Arthur Gans has stopped the provincial government from cutting off the publicly funded treatment Andrew badly needs just because he has reached his sixth birthday. The injunction requires the ministry of community, family and children's services to continue to fund the child's Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) treatment until a decision has been made in a larger court case against the government — and that could be a year away.
A father's joy practically rippled across the phone line.
"I'm the happiest man in the world," Andrew's dad, David, said yesterday from the family's home outside Orillia. "We're very excited."
Because without this decision, the Lowreys were about to lose their farm.
Andrew was a year old when his grandmother sensed something was wrong. "This child is autistic," she told them. The Lowreys didn't want to believe her. Not then.
But soon the signs were all there: The headbanging, the violent tantrums, the repetitive actions, the failure to interact, his tendency to bolt. A psychologist in Ottawa told them he was beyond help, that he would eventually have to be institutionalized. "We cried all the way home from Ottawa," his dad recalls. "We didn't believe her."
Soon they had done enough research on the Internet to conclude Andrew's grandmother was probably right. But it wasn't until he was almost four that he was finally diagnosed as autistic. A new pediatrician had moved to Orillia from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Her specialty was autism — and after examining Andrew, she had no doubt.
"He had the social skills of a one-year-old," Lowrey recalls, "and he was untestable for IQ."
Once he was diagnosed, he was eligible for ministry funding of IBI, also known as ABA or Applied Behavioural Analysis — the intensive one-on-one therapy that has done wonders with autistic children. After one year, the results with Andrew have been astounding. "We saw an amazing change," his father says. "If you met him today, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with him."
One psychologist called the change "dramatic and remarkable." His IBI therapist believes the little boy will even be able to attend university if he chooses.
Yet last December, just as he was at a crucial point in his therapy, the government pulled the plug. The ministry stops all funding of IBI at the age of six. Andrew had "aged out."
It's a draconian policy that is being challenged by 28 families across Ontario in a lawsuit that begins April 23. "Children don't magically get cured at their sixth birthday," argues Tammy Starr who, with an eight-year-old autistic daughter, is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. "It's shutting off access to education and to gaining life skills in the community for my daughter. You'd never think of doing that to my other kids, but for some reason, it's okay to do it to her. It's cutting off her lifeline. It's cruel."
When therapy is prematurely withdrawn, children usually relapse and lose whatever gains they've made. The Lowreys were frantic. Andrew had come so far and had begun a phase in his seven-day-a-week treatment that was aimed at integrating him into the "regular" school system. They appealed to Minister Brenda Elliott — with no success. They tried to join the larger lawsuit, but received no reply.
In the meantime, they were paying $4,000 a month for IBI out of their own pocket, maxing out their line of credit and running deeper and deeper into debt. "I've borrowed everything to get this far, but even if we were going to lose our house, we weren't going to rob Andrew of his future."
Their last option before putting their farm up for sale was going to the courts.
The government's lawyers argued that continuing to pay for Andrew's therapy would open the floodgates to thousands of other autistic children in Ontario now beyond their sixth birthday. They argued it would increase the list — estimated at more than 900 children — of those still waiting to begin IBI.
Thankfully, the judge disagreed. "The 'window of opportunity' to develop and learn will have closed on Andrew if his treatment is not continued for the next year or so, never to be opened again. Furthermore, the sale of the family farm and home, assuming it can be done in a timely fashion, and the resulting personal dislocation is not something that can be compensated in damages if the plaintiffs prove successful in the final analysis."
It's a reprieve for Andrew. For Starr, it's "great" news on the eve of their launching a similar lawsuit.
"It's abominable what the government has done to families," Andrew's dad says. "This is a chink in their armour."
And a ray of hope for so many other autistic kids.
Memberhttp://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mandel.html
Court stops province from cutting off publicly funded treatment for autism treatment
Andrews last hopeBy MICHELE MANDEL — Toronto Sun
Andrew Lowrey now has a chance at a bright future — and a decision in his case has just opened the door for many other autistic children just like him.
In a stunning judgment, Ontario Superior Court Justice Arthur Gans has stopped the provincial government from cutting off the publicly funded treatment Andrew badly needs just because he has reached his sixth birthday. The injunction requires the ministry of community, family and children's services to continue to fund the child's Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) treatment until a decision has been made in a larger court case against the government — and that could be a year away.
A father's joy practically rippled across the phone line.
"I'm the happiest man in the world," Andrew's dad, David, said yesterday from the family's home outside Orillia. "We're very excited."
Because without this decision, the Lowreys were about to lose their farm.
Andrew was a year old when his grandmother sensed something was wrong. "This child is autistic," she told them. The Lowreys didn't want to believe her. Not then.
But soon the signs were all there: The headbanging, the violent tantrums, the repetitive actions, the failure to interact, his tendency to bolt. A psychologist in Ottawa told them he was beyond help, that he would eventually have to be institutionalized. "We cried all the way home from Ottawa," his dad recalls. "We didn't believe her."
Soon they had done enough research on the Internet to conclude Andrew's grandmother was probably right. But it wasn't until he was almost four that he was finally diagnosed as autistic. A new pediatrician had moved to Orillia from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Her specialty was autism — and after examining Andrew, she had no doubt.
"He had the social skills of a one-year-old," Lowrey recalls, "and he was untestable for IQ."
Once he was diagnosed, he was eligible for ministry funding of IBI, also known as ABA or Applied Behavioural Analysis — the intensive one-on-one therapy that has done wonders with autistic children. After one year, the results with Andrew have been astounding. "We saw an amazing change," his father says. "If you met him today, you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with him."
One psychologist called the change "dramatic and remarkable." His IBI therapist believes the little boy will even be able to attend university if he chooses.
Yet last December, just as he was at a crucial point in his therapy, the government pulled the plug. The ministry stops all funding of IBI at the age of six. Andrew had "aged out."
It's a draconian policy that is being challenged by 28 families across Ontario in a lawsuit that begins April 23. "Children don't magically get cured at their sixth birthday," argues Tammy Starr who, with an eight-year-old autistic daughter, is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. "It's shutting off access to education and to gaining life skills in the community for my daughter. You'd never think of doing that to my other kids, but for some reason, it's okay to do it to her. It's cutting off her lifeline. It's cruel."
When therapy is prematurely withdrawn, children usually relapse and lose whatever gains they've made. The Lowreys were frantic. Andrew had come so far and had begun a phase in his seven-day-a-week treatment that was aimed at integrating him into the "regular" school system. They appealed to Minister Brenda Elliott — with no success. They tried to join the larger lawsuit, but received no reply.
In the meantime, they were paying $4,000 a month for IBI out of their own pocket, maxing out their line of credit and running deeper and deeper into debt. "I've borrowed everything to get this far, but even if we were going to lose our house, we weren't going to rob Andrew of his future."
Their last option before putting their farm up for sale was going to the courts.
The government's lawyers argued that continuing to pay for Andrew's therapy would open the floodgates to thousands of other autistic children in Ontario now beyond their sixth birthday. They argued it would increase the list — estimated at more than 900 children — of those still waiting to begin IBI.
Thankfully, the judge disagreed. "The 'window of opportunity' to develop and learn will have closed on Andrew if his treatment is not continued for the next year or so, never to be opened again. Furthermore, the sale of the family farm and home, assuming it can be done in a timely fashion, and the resulting personal dislocation is not something that can be compensated in damages if the plaintiffs prove successful in the final analysis."
It's a reprieve for Andrew. For Starr, it's "great" news on the eve of their launching a similar lawsuit.
"It's abominable what the government has done to families," Andrew's dad says. "This is a chink in their armour."
And a ray of hope for so many other autistic kids.
MemberWell said Anon! Fortunately I believe it is only a matter of time before those well padded posteriors are going to be trimming down as are their learned friends in the health sector.
MemberCUPE and BCTF can go take a collective jump off the nearest pier. Any individual members of said unions who care more about our children and their needs than their collective leaders may remain on the pier. Any individual members of said unions willing to train appropriately and agree to being supervised by the child's medical team and take their instructions from said medical supervisors may APPLY for the job of working with said child.
Feel free to substitute BCGEU, PTA, CPAC, NDP, MCFD, MOH, MOE, Teamsters and/or any other collective, organization, or group who claims their associated needs/desires/whines are more important than our children's medical care — except of course when paying lip service to our children's needs is useful to protecting their well padded posteriors.
MemberPerhaps CUPE and BCTF should look to their current collective agreements to help address the shortfall across the province rather than just complaining about it ad nauseum.
MemberAnother one in regards to parents which is of intrest. http://www.surreyleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=73&cat=23&id=56055
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