[Deleted User]

This was my respond to the sender of this letter which was our local MLA"S office:

Hi Sandy I wanted to thank you for your e-mail, to be quiet honest at first I did not know who you were as I though you, and Mr. Kent Stewart had forgotten all about us.

There are a couple of things I believe are very important for your office to know.

First of all, the families who are receiving help are only receiving a 1/3 of the total cost of the therapy, putting the burden back in the families lap.

Second I know personally of many families who are and have been in the waiting list for a year or so and, who are today still waiting. Therefore making medically necessary treatment impossible.Once again violating the rights of the children.

Third there is no scientific evidence stating that the treatment should be cut off at age 6. This is something the government is trying to impose.

How can they expect that a child's medically necessary treatment be efficient if it is cut off before is fully finish. I truly wish that at age 6 my child can be miraculously cure from autism, but that is not going to happen. So why would his treatment be terminated.

If my son was terminally ill he would get treatment regardless of the cost, regardless of his age and regardless of his outcome.
So why should it be any different with children with autism. Yes the best outcome is at an early intervention, but so is cancer if it gets detected early and yet cancer patients get treatment regardless of their chance of survival.

I believe my son, as all children with autism in this province has the right to medically necessary treatment, my son is not a second class citizen and as all the children with autism he deserves treatment.

Please don't take this letter the wrong way, I am very glad to hear from your office as it gives me hope that perhaps you have not forgotten about us. I simple hope that by informing you on the actual facts and views of us , the parents, you can present this to the house of commons or whoever it need be.

I believe and understand our MLA's office has the difficult duty to represent and address it's constituencies rights and I hope that your office will do just that.

Sincerely

To feat members I just tough it was important to share this with you, I am sorry at the anonymous part but I have to protect our family, sad isn't it.

[Deleted User]

I called the Minister Reid's office yesterday and the clerk gave me the number to Ministry of Water. I was told it was a different government office. I called Minister Hogg's office yesterday and I was given no number, the clerk at the office had no idea whom to forward me to.

MSP NOW!

My opinion and MY EXPERIENCE. Ditto Debra.

[Deleted User]

I completely agree with 'anonymous' on Friday. My son will turn six this December and if he needs to, he should get ABA therapy after he is turns seven. The question is: what can we do to get the government to pay for these necessary services RIGHT NOW? Can we send them a bill? Will they pay? How many more lawsuits do they have to go through?

Any suggestions will be followed through. I already phoned and emailed all the Ministers.

[Deleted User]

My own thoughts….

I have a child over the magical number Minsiter Reid discusses. My child needs Lovaas and he needs it NOW. Not tommorrow. It is a choice, but it should be a choice by just swiping my care card. MSP should get a list of Lovaas style consultants and allow them to bill. Suggestions only (but a really nice one)

I called those numbers yesterday and I demanded MSP NOW. We need to stick together on this as much as possible. Am I wrong in once hearing that some one in this government of ours said if every child with autism had Lovaas that the symptoms would be gone or lessen?

For the record my opinion only, my thoughts.

[Deleted User]

>
Our office thought you might be interested in the following transcript of
Minister Linda Reid's comments yesterday on treatment and funding for
autism. I've also attached a copy of a Ministry of Children and Family
Development factsheet on services provided to children with autism.

Treatment for autism – Honorable Linda Reid, Minister of State for Early
Childhood Development – October 9, 2002

Reid: In terms of what we're doing, we're actually meeting the majority of
the needs in this province, if not all the needs. What we did when we were
elected on June 5 just a year ago was actually address and tackle.

What the Premier asked us to for many, many years was to have a provincial
response to those who were awaiting assessment and those who were awaiting
diagnosis. We have done that.

And I can tell you, by the end of this month we will have met that need.
There will be no one waiting for assessment diagnosis around autism. That
clears the way for treatment plans to be in place, and frankly are.

We have early intensive behavioural intervention programs operating in this
province. We have Vancouver Island covered off – Queen Alexandra Hospital.
We have the lower mainland through the Delta program. We have the interior
through the Okanagan program.

And now we have what we call individualized funding for almost 500 children
in the province of British Columbia. That has met the need for the children
who are zero to six years of age and who have autism. We have done, I think,
amazing work as a government in a very short space of time to address that
need.

The reason we chose the population we did is it's driven by the best
science. If indeed you want to engage in applied behavioural analysis, where
that intervention makes the most sense and is the most effective is when
children are under six years of age.

Reporter: Will the Lovass program be available at government expense?

Reid: We have families today who are purchasing aspects of Lovass at public
expense and engaging in programs that are very effective for their young
people.

Reporter: So it sounds as if the appeal court…. While the appeal court has
made the ruling, you've already anticipated that. You've moved forward, I
guess, without having to have that ruling.

Reid: Absolutely true. The determination put forward by the Attorney of the
time was that these programs can continue to be available regardless of the
outcome of the ruling. I believe that. I've delivered on that.

Certainly we have more than 500 families today receiving individualized
funding who have resources at their disposal that they have never had
before. I'm personally delighted with the progress we've made.

Reporter: So is everybody getting Lovass who needs it?

Reid: What we have said is that we will trust families to make the best
determination. We have families today who are choosing to use their
individual dollars to purchase speech-language therapies. We have
individuals who are choosing to purchase physiotherapy. We have lots of
families who are choosing to purchase behavioural interventions, many of
which are Lovass interventions.

No question, autism is a very complex disorder. Can you treat every child in
exactly the same way and expect a reasonable outcome? No. It's a spectrum
disorder.

Autism is a spectrum disorder, so you have children who are very mildly
affected. You have children who are very severely affected. That
determination determines the best intervention.

So there's some really good things happening. We're trusting families to
make really good choices about how to support their families, because it's a
disorder that affects an entire family. It's not just the child. It's the
parents. It's the siblings. It's the classmates. It's a disorder, frankly,
that's problematic for families in terms of something as simple as sleep.

Sleep deprivation is a huge issue. These little guys can survive on very
little sleep in any 24-hour period. So those families are usually moving at
tremendous rates to stay abreast of all the challenges of parenting
generally. This only complicates the issue.

Autism is around cognitive deficits in some instances – some instances not.
It's absolutely around communication deficits and issues around
socialization. So there is going to be differing interventions based on the
need of the child.

Reporter: It sounds as if there's going to be no appetite from your
government to appeal the ruling that Madam Justice Mary Saunders has brought
down.

Reid: That will be a determination reached by the Attorney.

Reporter: Okay. But you're not going to be in there advocating to appeal
this by the sounds of it.

Reid: My role is to deliver the best possible programming, and I believe we
are doing that.

[Deleted User]

Hi all i just phoned also. it sure felt good to tell someone who could do something about it. congrats to everyone on yesterdays ruling .I also emailed the ministers and the premier. it cant hurt right?

[Deleted User]

Okay, I have phoned. Perhaps it will help.
Everyone else please join in. Show the government that families are united in DEMANDING services for their children NOW!

[Deleted User]

Has anyone heard, either publically or privately, of the government's response to yesterdays ruling? Someone mentioned they had phoned the Ministers offices. Did they get a response? Is phoning worth it?

[Deleted User]

I am very happy for those families who won yesterdays court ruling. I do have this to say I hope that in the future because of this ruling that MSP will take over funding, even partially and we can have the medical treatment that is neccessary. As been mentioned all along this is a medical disablity whether mild or severe diagnosed by a doctor referring us to medical treatment. This is my opinion and I am not attacking any agency. But I hope that is the long term effect. Placing this where it belongs – in the medical community only.

My two cents.

[Deleted User]

I am very happy for those families who won yesterdays court ruling. I do have this to say I hope that in the future because of this ruling that MSP will take over funding, even partially and we can have the medical treatment that is neccessary. As been mentioned all along this is a medical disablity whether mild or severe diagnosed by a doctor referring us to medical treatment. This is my opinion and I am not attacking any agency. But I hope that is the long term effect. Placing this where it belongs – in the medical community only.

My two cents.

[Author]

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