An afternoon at the park offered a bit of a reprieve for local autism advocates in advance of a few months of advocacy leading up to this year’s provincial election.
“We wanted a more fun way to get together,” said Julia Ritchie of the organizing Northern Ontario Autism Alliance.
“There’s a time and place, obviously, for rallies and protests, but it’s been such a long two years that we thought, why not have a fun event to kick off things?
“A lot of our work centred around advocacy in relation to the Northern Ontario Autism Program, so things like rallies, petitions, that sort of thing, and we just felt like it’s been a really long two years and families have had it tough.”
The day’s Sensory Fun Day in the Park at Westmount Playground in Sudbury was the first such event for the organization, at which several children were found playing on the equipment and painting in the snow with food colouring alongside parents and guardians.
Although the event wasn’t political in nature, the organization behind it plans on continued advocacy, including supporting area NDP MPP candidates they cite as supporting their cause.
The group is opposed to changes in the Ontario Autism Program, which they say have consistently missed the mark, even when the province expanded the effort early last year.
“It’s very slow-moving,” Ritchie said. “It’s been over three years now since the Ontario Autism Program was changed, so for three years we’ve been advocating for needs-based core services for kids.”
There are currently 600 children and youths from across the province registered with the Ontario Autism Program and making use of its core clinical services.
Although another 8,000 kids are supposed to enter the program in April 1, Ritchie notes that this progression is both long delayed and falls vastly shy of the province’s needs. She estimates there are approximately 50,000 children waiting for services.
Included among those on the wait list is Blake Desormeaux, 5, whose parents Joanne Dorion and Marc Desormeaux joined him in attending Sunday’s event.
He currently benefits from services such as speech pathology and applied behaviour analysis, for which provincial funding is projected to expire in February. He’s on the wait list to have provincial funding continue, but the parents have been told it’s a 14- to 16-week waiting period, during which they’re expected to pay the $3,500 to $4,000 expense out of pocket.
Dorion said they have little choice but to fund this gap due to the progress Blake might lose if he takes a break and the possibility they will be bumped to the back of the wait list. Their first round of funding included a wait of approximately one year.
The programming has been of great benefit to the youngster, Dorion said.
“He’s had words here and there,” she said, adding that the skills he has learned have also helped him in a lot of ways, socially.
Although the alliance is still hashing out how they intend to approach advocacy this coming election season, Ritchie said their core message has remained consistent.
“I think No. 1 just to get more kids into therapy would be the No. 1 goal as quickly as possible, and then once a lot of the children’s needs are met then I think we can examine the program and make changes,” she said. “Although the program is not perfect we’d like more children in it and receiving services.”
Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West attended Sunday’s event in a show of solidarity for the alliance’s cause.
“Really, it’s about showing support for these families who have been showing support for this funding for some time,” he said.
“It’s been a simple message since the beginning, that there’s a spectrum, so one size doesn’t fit all, so you need funding that meets all needs required.”
There are important milestones children with autism reach when they receive the proper support, and he said that he’ll remain committed to advocating for their needs as the province plunges into election season in advance of the June 2 election date looming on the horizon.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
