Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Time To Take Autism Seriously - Utah Man With Severe Autism Found

Even the cases of two young men with severe autism implicated in homicides, one involving his mother, are not enough to shake some "joy of autism" Neurodiversity followers from misrepresenting the realities of autism. Even some well intentioned, polite people just don't get it. They just refuse to see the harsher realities faced by some autistic persons.

In Utah another event highlighting the serious realities facing some with autism and their families has developed since Sunday evening when severely autistic 20 year old Justin Bailey went missing. It is now being reported on ParkRecord.com that Mr. Bailey has been found and appears to be OK.

Autistic children and adults go missing with some frequency. My own severely autistic son went missing while I was occupied on a business phone call several years ago. He crossed a busy commercial street near our home before a Good Samaritan stopped his vehicle and took him to an adjacent convenience store where the police were contacted and where I was able to retrieve him after calling 911.

Last year we were all relieved to learn that an autistic man, Keith Kennedy, was found alive in the woods and was OK almost a week after he wandered away from the camp at which he was staying in Wisconsin. It does not always end as well as it did for Keith Kennedy and Conor Doherty and as it apparently has for Justin Bailey.

Wandering, and the dangers of every day life that some severely autistic persons do not understand, are very real challenges that should not be ignored in an effort to present a "posautive" view of medical disorders, of autism disorders. We must continue to provide ABA to help autistic children develop to their fullest potential. We must seek even more effective treatments ..... and cures ..... for autism disorders.




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1 comment:

farmwifetwo said...

Did you see this?? I remember it from the first slap by the Ombudsman. This is the kind of thing that the ND crowd should be lobbying against... instead of slapping at parents to "get over it" and ranting about anti-vaxxer's. I'm not a McGuinty fan so I'm not surprised.

Ont. parents still asked to give up custody of special needs kids: Ombudsman
Published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | 11:29 AM ET
Canadian Press NewsItem/NewsComponent/NewsLines/ByLine
TORONTO - Ontario's ombudsman says parents of special needs children are still being asked to give up custody to get their kids treatment, despite government promises to stop the practice.

Ombudsman Andre Marin issued a special report in 2005 criticizing the government for forcing parents to relinquish custody so their severely disabled kids could be put into residential care.

The province eventually restored custody to parents of 63 children, but Marin says it's happening again to at least another 19 families.

Marin calls it the most "morally repugnant" thing that he could possibly imagine a government doing.

Children's Minister Deb Matthews says her officials are working with the ombudsman to make sure cases are resolved so parents do not have to give up custody of their kids.

Marin says he's extremely disturbed by the actions of the Children's Ministry, and will likely launch another special investigation into the custody-for-care problem.

"In between very nice, candy-coated statements by the government that this shouldn't be happening and is not happening, we see it's still happening," Marin said in an interview.