Ontario is behind the curve on Autism Services

As most of you know, while I was living in Toronto had the amazing pleasure to work for a family with three kids- two of whom are on the Autistic Spectrum. These kids- all three of them- are the loves of my life. And it's because of their two boys that I've entered into Early Childhood Education, and am working at the Centre for Autism Services Alberta. I hope that after I'm finished my diploma that I might be able to take my diploma in Autism and Behavioural Sciences, and keep working with Autistic children...but if we move back to Ontario, that looks doubtful.

Why? Not because of my lack of motivation or qualifications- no, I am hell bound and determined that even if I have to take a job with a normal daycare when I move back home, I will continue to look for and interview for jobs in Autism intervention. These kids are amazing and need all the help that's possible to provide them to blossom- and when they do they're incredible. The problem is that Ontario's health system has totally ignored Autism, and services are sporadic and ill-funded. People are going bankrupt trying to help their kids because they cannot afford the kind of therapy their children so desperately need.

In Alberta, once a child is diagnosed with Autism they are referred to a service provider- in Edmonton alone there are 3. The service provider assesses the child, and is assigned a team consisting of a Speech Language Pathologist, an Occupational Therapist, a Physical Therapist, a Psychological Therapist, and Behavioural Aides. This team comes up with a plan to target goals for the child, and the aides make weekly visits to work on those goals with the child. The child is entitled to this intervention until they have either been deemed to have made significant enough progress that they can be tranisitioned to group therapy, or until they are sixteen.

Now, it's not a perfect system- there is a lot of turnover since working with Autism isn't for everyone. Most of the Aides are university and college students and only have what training the service provider has provided them...however since they are acting only on the orders of the therapists, this isn't a big deal (as an Aide, I feel I provide the best therapy I can). It can be long and grueling, and the families constantly have people coming into their homes to provide therapy. But there is NOTHING like this in Ontario...and infact many therapists are straight out banned from schools in Ontario...meaning that a lot of children's therapy has a hard stop at kindergarden- a crucial period!

I hope this gets better...I will be getting all the training I can so that I can make my own difference for the families of Ontario when I return. In the meantime, parents- hang in there.