Feb 6, 2019, CTV News: Parents angered by changes to Ontario autism program aimed at cutting wait list https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/parents-angered-by-changes-to-ontario-autism-program-aimed-at-cutting-wait-list-1.4284855 TORONTO -- Ontario is overhauling its autism program in an attempt to clear a waiting list of 23,000 children, but families and advocates say that backlog will be eliminated at the expense of the amount and quality of treatment. The changes announced Wednesday by Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod include giving funding for treatment directly to families instead of regional service providers, dependent on age, with up to $140,000 for a child in treatment from the ages of two to 18. Families will receive up to $20,000 a year until their child turns six. From that time until they are 18 it would be $5,000 a year. Lisa MacLeod Ontario's Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, looks on during an announcement in Toronto, on Wednesday, February 6, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young But intensive therapy can cost between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, said Ontario Autism Coalition president Laura Kirby-McIntosh, which means that families will quickly burn through the funding…. Parents of children with autism launched protests against the previous Liberal government in the spring of 2016 when it announced that kids over four would be cut off from funding for intensive therapy. … The program will be means tested, with support targeted to lower- and middle-income families. Those making more than $250,000 won't receive any funding, MacLeod said. A child entering the program at age seven would receive up to $55,000 until they're 18, the government said. Kristen Ellison's eight-year-old son spends 25 hours a week in treatment, at a cost of nearly $6,000 a month. … "There are lots of two year olds that are potty trained or talking and have deficits in other areas. There's lots of eight year olds that are in diapers, who don't go to school because they can't integrate, who harm themselves ... What's going to happen to them?"… Families on the waiting list can expect to receive funding within the next 18 months, MacLeod said. Todd Boyce, whose seven-year-old son has been on the waiting list for 1 1/2 years, said it has been frustrating. … The government is also doubling the funding for five diagnostic hubs to $5.5 million a year for the next two years to address the diagnosis waiting list of 2,400 children, who currently wait on average for 31 weeks. The new program has the same annual budget of $321 million as the Liberal program. …
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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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