I would like to compliment Chrissy Rodd on her letter 'Children with autism deserve more support' and Darlene Ellis 'Our daughter has waited long enough' (The Guardian, Oct. 22, 2009).
Our daughter was diagnosed with autism by her pediatrician back in July 2008 and we are currently still waiting for funding to help with the cost of her therapy - a year and a half later. We have been paying for therapy privately (as many parents waiting are) for the last year. Most parents such as myself feel the sense of urgency to act now being as the window of recovery is in the preschool years.
Having said this, raising a child with special needs poses many challenges and is quite stressful without the added financial stress and the stress of wondering who/where we can get help from while waiting this incredibly long time. We are hopefully a matter of weeks away from receiving funding only to find out not only will our daughter not be receiving occupational therapy and will rarely see a speech therapist but they are only paying our intensive behaviour intervention (IBI) therapist $10 an hour, which is an insult to offer any professional who has gone through the training to work with special needs children.
So here I am, I'll be compensating my therapist's wages for what the government is too cheap to offer and now looking at hiring a private occupational therapist, which costs up to $95 an hour. With the 2009 statistics being one in every 91 children being diagnosed with autism (one in every 58 boys) maybe government will find a heart and invest more money into our Island children suffering with autism and develop a stategy that does not leave Island families feeling hopeless and terrified for their children's future.
