Dec 13, 2018, Global News: B.C. Children’s Hospital working to reduce autism assessment waits https://globalnews.ca/news/4759612/bc-childrens-hospital-autism-assessment-wait-times/ A report into the disturbing case of young boy with autism has focused new attention on the delays in getting children diagnosed with the disorder. As Catherine Urquhart reports, the wait can still be more than a year. B.C. Children’s Hospital says it is working to meet a key recommendation made by B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth when it comes to autism assessment waits in the province …. 2,800 children in B.C. are waiting to be assessed, and the wait times are lengthy, averaging 55 weeks. In the Northern Health Region, the average wait is 62 weeks. B.C. Children’s Hospital oversees assessments in the province. “I’m excited to work towards that goal. … This year we will do an additional 400 plus assessments and train an additional 12 or more assessors,” Linda Lemke, chief operating officer, told Global News, Juliet Henderson-Rahbar has been waiting more than a year to have her 13-year-old daughter Persia assessed. When asked if she thinks the waits are acceptable, she responded, “No, not at all, but I think we’ve learned to accept it.”…
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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