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(Canada) Ontario: 50K on autism waitlist




Sept 11, 2024, CBC News: More than 70,000 kids waitlisted for Ontario’s autism program

New data shows that the number of Ontario children with autism being enrolled in government-funded core therapy has slowed and is actually declining at times. CBC’s Chris Glover has the details.


Mother, Kirsten Marcelin describing her son:


He has the speed of an Olympic sprinter when he’s going. He’s an eloper, and he will find the opportunity to disappear.


You can see in the video, he runs into some trucks making grindy, loud noises, and he panics.

CBC: Kirsten Marcelin’s five year old son, Regis, was diagnosed with autism at two years old.


Kirsten: He’s expressing himself by hurting himself. It’s horrible to watch. It’s heartbreaking, so we’ve taken advantage of everything’s that’s available to us.


CBC: The stay-at-home mother of five has enrolled Regis into studies to get him care, even paying out-of-pocket for services she can barely afford.


Three years post diagnosis, and she’s still waiting to get him provincially funded autism services.


Kirsten: We don’t know where we are on that waitlist. We have no idea.


CBC: The Ontario Autism Coalition estimates the number of children on the waitlist for services in Ontario has now ballooned to around 50,000 children, yet even with that growing waitlist, during some weeks this year, new data obtained by the Canadian press, finds the number of kids receiving care actually declined.


The first two weeks of June, for example 7,000 fewer kids were receiving treatment  in Ontario.


Alina Cameron, President, Ontario Autism Coalition:


At no pointy should those numbers be in the negative. We’re talking about 50,000 children on a waitlist for time sensitive therapies, and we’re seeing numbers go in the negative in some weeks. That is completely unacceptable.


CBC: In a statement to CBC Toronto, the province says sometimes the enrollment numbers into autism programs goes down because kids age out, but the president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, Alina Cameron, says the program should always be adding more kids, and many more with 50,000 kids and counting waiting.

 

Alina: I believe that the slowdown of entry and the ballooning of the waitlist is because of how the program is designed.


CBC: She says this is especially true because it’s always best to start autism  therapy as soon as a child is diagnosed.


In 2019, the then new PC Government scrapped the previous Liberal program to introduce its own. . . .


The reception was so negative and visceral from families, it was shelved and relanched in 2022. Now the province says it’s increased its autism funding to $720 million this year.  . . .


Cameron says it’s still not enough, and families are reaching their breaking point.  


Alina: There’s a large increase in the number of families not asking how to access the Ontario Autism Program anymore. They’re asking me how to access CAS, and if that isn’t the biggest alarm bell ever, I don’t know what is.  . . .

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