A group of Sudburians numbering in the dozens gathered Friday afternoon, despite the inclement weather, to express their disapproval with the Ford government's new autism funding model.
The changes announced Wednesday, Feb. 6 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.
Shifting the funding model away from needs-based to age-based stuck out as a particular sore spot for those who spoke at the rally in front of Sudbury MPP Jamie West's office on Barrydowne Road on Feb. 15, including rally organizer Sean Staddon.
Sean's daughter, June, was diagnosed on the autism spectrum in 2017, and has been on a waiting list for funding ever since.
"The announcement to the funding changes announced by the Ford government prompted me to bring some parents together here in Sudbury," said Staddon. "Bringing back age-based funding instead of needs based means any child over the age of six receives significantly less funding that anyone under that age. The Liberal plan before was bad, it made huge wait lists but at least every kid got what they needed."
The Ontario government's decision to change the funding model was done with the intention of eliminating a wait list of 23,000 children in the province, including Staddon's daughter.
"(Previous) funding provided as many hours of IBI (Intensive Behavioural Intervention) therapy as needed, some kids require full-time supervision, 40 hours a week, and are not ready to be in a school," said Staddon.
"What this is essentially going to do is cut that funding in half and even down to five per cent and those kids are going to have to go somewhere. The education system isn't ready, there aren't enough education assistants out there and they're not trained. That's what worries me, they're going to start clearing the wait list and create another wait list becuase there aren't enough trained professionals."
Children aged 2-5 will receive up to $20,000 a year, children 6-18 will receive up to $5,000 a year. The severity of each individual child's autism will not be a factor in funding. The funds will be allotted based on the family’s income and any family earning more than $250,000 a year will not be eligible.
All children who are currently on the waiting list will receive new funds within 18 months.
A pair of Sudburians who work closely with people with autism in the community each hammered on the importance of investing in children with autism from an early age and providing them with the funding on an as-needed basis as they grow older.
"The more independence that we're able to promote with our kids, the fewer their needs will be in the future," said Kim Morris, behaviour analyst with Behaviour Analysis North.
"As a behaviour analyst, what we strive for is providing evidence-based treatment to children. I work with people across their lifespan, I work with adults and I work children and an investment in children really does make an impact on individuals for their entire lives. The changes to this program are absoultely devastating to families, and are impacting more than families with autism, they're impacting society as a whole."
Sudbury Developmental Services executive director Mila Wong attended Friday's rally and echoed the sentiments of Morris.
"This action by the government was done without any consultation and it's just moving funds from one place to another, it's not really infusing any new funds," said Wong.
"I will tell you, when these children grow up and you don't have early intervention, their challenges are going to be bigger and it's going to be costlier. This is what we have to keep in mind, that intervention has to be early and the investment should be there to help the families now, because when these children grow up and enter the adult world, intervention is more challenging."
Staddon believes that this new model is yet another step in Premier Doug Ford's push towards privatization in the health care system.
"I've been working extra and so has my wife to pay privately and we're scared that's going to be a detriment," said Staddon. "I truly believe this is the start of Doug Ford's privatization scheme, he's making the system worse and saying our public system didn't work and it's scary. I pay a private provider and they're fantastic, and other parents do too with publicly funded dollars and they get fantastic service as well, but it is a scary and slippery slope."
Sudbury MPP Jamie West helped host the rally, offering up the space in front of his office and providing a microphone and speaker for those in attendance to get their message out. West says that the NDP has been receiving letters and emails from all over the province with respect to the changes to Ontario's autism funding model.
"We were in a bad place previously with the Liberal government, and I'm not trying to be partisan with this, but we were in a bad place where there wasn't enough money in the pool and there were long wait lists and the solution went from bad to worse," said West. "The decision was we'll take that too small amount of money and we'll chop it up so everyone gets that same, paltry amount. It's not going to help anybody."
