Ontario Children Waiting Too Long For Access To Autism Programs - Ontario Auditor General Report 2013

News Release

For Immediate Release                                                             December 10, 2013

CHILDREN WAITING TOO LONG FOR ACCESS TO AUTISM PROGRAMS, AUDITOR GENERAL SAYS

(TORONTO) Screening for autism is often occurring late, and children who are diagnosed then face long waits for access to some of the programs that could help them, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says in her 2013 Annual Report. In addition, certain services are not being directed to those that may benefit the most.

“The Ministry of Children and Youth Services has quadrupled autism funding over the last decade, but there are still more children with autism waiting for government-funded services than there are chil­dren receiving them,” Lysyk said today following the release of the Report.

Intensive Behaviour Intervention (IBI) is the Ministry’s primary autism program, and the Ministry has also introduced several other programs, including applied behavioural analysis (ABA)-based services, and respite programs.

The audit found that children with autism are diagnosed in Ontario at a median age of a little over 3 years, later than the screening period of 18 to 24 months old endorsed by the Canadian Pediatric Society for children with risk factors. Then, due to long wait lists, Ontario children do not typically start IBI until almost age 7. Research has shown that children who start IBI before age 4 have better outcomes than those who start later. In addition, although scientific research shows that children with milder forms of autism have better outcomes with IBI, the program is currently available only to chil­dren assessed with more severe autism.

Following are some of the Auditor General’s other significant findings:

•    ABA-based services, the only type of funded therapy available to children with mild to moderate forms of autism, allow a child to work on only one goal at a time and may not be sufficient for those who have many behavioural problems or goals to achieve. After achieving one goal, the child returns to the bottom of the wait list.

•    The lead service agencies decide how to allocate Ministry funding for IBI between two service-delivery options: direct service, where the child receives service directly from a service provider at no cost; or direct funding, where the family gets funds from the lead agency to purchase private services. Wait times for IBI services can differ significantly between the two options and among regions. In one region in 2012, the average wait for IBI services under direct funding was five months longer than under direct service. In another region, the situation was reversed.  

•    Children discharged from IBI services in 2012/2013 under the direct-funding option received on average almost one year more of services than those under the direct-service option (35 months versus 25 months). As well, children receiving IBI under the direct-service option often received fewer hours of therapy than they were approved for.

•    Children transitioning to high school and beyond receive minimal support.

•    Since 2006, the Ministry has reimbursed up to 60 individuals a total of $21 million for the cost of IBI therapy and other expenses outside of the regular service system. Per child, this represents more than double the value of services that a child in the regular service system typically receives.

For more information, please contact:

Bonnie Lysyk

Auditor General

(416) 327-1326

For more information and to view the full 2013 Annual Report, please visit 

www.auditor.on.ca

Autism Treatment of Choice

As pointed out on Nesrhtens… ABA and thoughts… Sigmund Eldevik, Richard P. Hastings, J. Carl Hughes, ErikJahr, Svein Eikeseth, and Scott Cross have published an article in Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, Volume 38, Issue 3 May 2009 , pages 439 - 450, Meta-Analysis of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention for Children With Autism, which reports the results of an examination of 34 Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention studies "9 of which were controlled designs having either a comparison or a control group". The article authors found large full scale intelligence changes and moderate adaptive behavior changes.

The authors concluded that:

"at present, and in the absence of other interventions with established efficacy, Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention should be an intervention of choice for children with autism. "

It will be interesting to see if ABA critical researchers respond with anything positive, that is to say, with word of an evidence based effective alternative. My best is that the usual nonsensical rhetoric will flow from the usual anti-ABA activists who will offer absolutely no evidence based alternative. Or they will simply argue that autistic children, even the severely autistic, should unlike all other children, simply be left to develop on their own with no effective assistance.

autism

Autism Gold Standard Intervention - Nova Scotia ABA/IEBI Autism Program Produces Positive Reslts

This has not been a good week for those who insist that there is no consensus on a gold standard intervention for autistic children. The AAP description of ABA as an intervention with more than 5 decades of studies providing positive results for autistic children is followed by the results from a Nova Scotia IEBI/ABA study showing positive results. It's enough to give anti-ABA crusaders a real headache.


Autism Treatment Program Getting Positive Results



Department of Health

October 30, 2007 12:00

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A program designed to enhance social and communication skills for young children with autism spectrum disorder is providing added benefits to their families.

The interim results of an independent program evaluation conducted by IWK Health Centre Research Services and Dalhousie University indicates that after one year of Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI)treatment, virtually all 27 children in the first phase of the program had significantly improved communication skills. According to tests and parental feedback, they also had improved problem-solving skills and reduced behavioural problems.

...

Many of the children were about a year and a half behind in language-development skills when they began EIBI treatment. On average, children gained more than a year's worth of language skills in the first 12 months of treatment.