What will the next government do to support families with Autistic children?
It’s one of many questions on the mind of voters with election day set for Thursday, June 2nd.
Alina Cameron is a mom to a seven year old daughter on the Autism spectrum and shared with Acadia News that there were a few interim funding programs available to families.
“If you had applied by a certain date and had registered for the Ontario Autism Program (OAP), there was a patchwork of little programs that were very targeted to help with certain age groups and certain behaviours,” explained Cameron. “There was also the one-time interim funding, and some families were able to access the funds and use it on therapies. Other families didn’t have access to and for many families, like mine, the funding only covered a small portion of the expenses. But now the program is finished and everyone is waiting.”
Cameron is also involved with the Ontario Autism Coalition as well as the Northern Autism Families group.
The provincial program pledged funds to families if they registered before April 2021 for eligible services and supports.
The amount that a family received was based on the age of the child as of April 1, 2022.
When looking at the platforms for the major parties, Cameron noted the PC Party wants the OAP to remain the same with no mention of it in their platform.
Cameron likes what she’s heard and seen from the other parties, adding “We like that they are willing to work with and build on what exists already. Scrapping the program and starting from scratch would waste more of our children’s time… we don’t have time for that.”
Both the Liberals and NDP have said they will get rid of the current age caps that exist for the OAP, and will make the program truly needs based.
The NDP platform calls for an increase to the budget by $125 million by 2024-2025 and the decision making for the treatment in the hands of clinicians and parents, not bureaucrats.
The Liberal platform doesn’t mention an increase to the budget but does indicate a plan to implement direct billing to families.
The Green Party wants to increase funding and implement the Ultimate Wait Time benchmark for diagnosis and access to services.
