NDP Leader Jack Layton's Response On Autism

The following document was forwarded by members of Medicare For Autism Now who received it from the New Democratic Party on behalf of NDP leader Jack Layton:

Jack's Response on Autism

First, both NDP MP Peter Stoffer and myself have challenged the federal government for not providing funding in its last budget to help families with autistic children. I fully recognize that families with autistic children are in crying need of support and they are very disappointed that the Conservative government has ignored their needs in their budget spending.

On the matter of voting, in the April 3, 2006 to September 14 ,2007 session of parliament MP Shawn Murphy introduced his private members legislation Bill C-304, An Act to provide for the development of a national strategy for the treatment of autism and to amend the Canada Health Act. C-304 received first reading on May 17, 2006 but unfortunately it did not make it to third reading or a final vote because it died when the Harper government chose to prorogue that Parliament. I am also aware that on March 29, 2007, the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs issued a report on the Funding of Treatment for Autism titled:" Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis" in which they recommended that the federal government demonstrate some leadership in the autism file by collaborating with the provinces to create a National Autism Strategy and address the funding of treatment. However, this report was not put before parliament for a vote.

New Democrats recognize that providing support for families with Autistic children has to be a bigger priority for the federal government than another corporate tax cut. That is why Peter Stoffer has introduced Private Members' Bills, C-211, An Act to amend the Canada Health Act (Autism Spectrum Disorder) to "ensure that the cost of Applied Behavioural Analysis ( ABA) and Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) for autistic persons is covered by the health care Insurance plan of every province" and C -212, An Act respecting a Canadian Autism Day. ' The federal NDP is proud of Mr Stoffer's efforts to help put the needs of Autistic children on the political map.

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Grim, Chaotic Autism Reality In Ireland

The Independent paints a grim picture of autism reality in Ireland in Autism 'chaos' as one-third wait over year for diagnosis and in an editorial Grim message on autism . Figures released by Irish health authorities show that in one county there are no waiting lists while in others there are 14 months to 3 year delays in receiving diagnosis. For many Irish autistic children the early period when intervention is most effective expires on the waiting list for diagnosis.

The waiting list tragedy is not unique to autistic children in Ireland. Here in Canada there are huge discrepancies between provinces with respect to autism services. Ontario is notorious for its waiting lists for receipt of autism treatment with children left "rotting on the vine". In its editorial the Independent noted that in Ireland:

"following the release of a damning report, the Government was warned that inaction in the welfare of children will lead to a litany of social ills, including an increase in suicide and self-mutilation and family breakdown, which will cost the State dearly in the not too distant future."

So too in Canada our governments, federal and provincial, have been warned by the Senate Committee report "Pay Now or Pay Later" what the future would hold if action were not taken to provide funding and a national autism strategy to ensure that autistic children received the treatment they need. In Canada a cynical Stephen Harper led Conservative party uses pre-WWII views of Canadian federalism to justify its lack of commitment to helping autistic children across Canada.

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Autism and Canada's Jurisdictional Shell Game

In Autism fight gaining momentum Susan Sherring of Sun Media interviews Senator Jim Munson and Autism Dad Andrew Kavchak and describes their efforts in fighting for a National Autism Strategy in Canada. The article also describes the Stephen Harper-Tony Clement non response to the Senate Committee autism report Pay Now Or Pay Letter. As stated by Senator Munson:

“As a nation, we have to take a look at all of this. We have an obligation as a society. For families with an autistic child, this is extremely expensive. You’ve got families breaking up, mortgaging their homes. I’m tired of the jurisdictional shell game,” he said.

“The bottom line is we have to put it all on the table. If we don’t, how are we ever going to have a national program? People are scrambling to get treatments for their sons and daughters.”

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Harper Government Urged To Take Serious Action To Address Canada's Autism Crisis

A number of key federally based autism organizations in Canada have united to demand a serious response by the Harper government to the Canadian Senate committee on autism funding recommendations to address Canada's national autism crisis.

Autism Society Canada	Autism Canada Foundation	Canadian-American Research Consortium
Autism Speaks Canada	Autism Treatment Services of Canada	Geneva Centre for Autism

Nov 05, 2007 08:47 ET

Collective Voice of the Autism Community in Canada Calls on Government to Take Steps to Establish National Autism Strategy

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 5, 2007) - The Conservative Government has provided its response to the Standing Senate Committee recommendations on Autism in its Response to the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis, tabled on October 17th, 2007.

Good news in the federal response is the announcement of a new Autism Research Chair at Simon Fraser University focusing on the study of treatments and interventions. Autism organizations are encouraged to see more focus on applied research and best practices. In addition the government has promised further funding for ASD research in general, has committed to hosting a fall research symposium and is promising more investigation into the potential for developing national surveillance on ASD.

The response states that "the Government of Canada acknowledges the complexity of the challenges related to ASD and agrees with the Committee that there is much work to be done to enhance collaboration and evidence on this issue..." Autism advocates across Canada had hoped that the federal government would take a stronger position in response to the report, which provides unmistakably clear direction. A number of key organizations are coming together to urge our federal government to take a clear leadership role in confronting what truly is a national problem.

Last December, the Standing Senate Committee investigating Funding for the Treatment of Autism heard from hundreds of families, adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), experts in treatment and service delivery, researchers and Autism advocacy organizations across Canada - representing the over 200,000 children, youth and adults affected by ASD in this country. These figures, which are sobering enough, do not represent the true number of Canadians affected by the lack of adequate action and services for ASD. Parents, other family members and caregivers are also deeply affected, emotionally, socially and financially.

In its ground breaking report entitled, PAY NOW OR PAY LATER: Autism Families in Crisis (March 2007) the bi-partisan Senate Committee recommended some urgent initiatives that the federal government could implement over the next two years in response to the crisis situation faced by many individuals with ASD and their families.

Most importantly, both Conservative and Liberal members of this Senate Committee called on our government to develop a comprehensive National Autism Strategy to address the complex needs and glaring inequalities in public funding and access to targeted services and treatment across the country.

ASD typically presents lifelong challenges to those individuals diagnosed as well as to their family members and to society as a whole - a comprehensive national plan is vital.

The government declined to take up the Senate's recommendation to lead the way forward in committing to a National ASD Strategy. In spite of receiving hundreds of hours of testimony from all concerned; well-vetted and honed down by a dedicated committee of Senators, it seems that: "... governments do not yet know enough about ASD and its treatments to implement effective and well-informed strategies that would lead to meaningful outcomes,...". The 12-page response is very focused on knowledge gaps and provides a great deal of information about current special needs programming - little of which is Autism-specific.

Our government's Senate Committee also supported fully the recommendation of a federal/provincial/territorial ministerial conference to look at innovative funding arrangements for the purpose of financing Autism therapies, defining essential services and looking at new family support measures but the government has also declined to take up this recommendation. With the exception of First Nations and Inuit communities, the response is in keeping with federal practice and places all responsibility for health and educational funding decisions on transfer payments and service delivery squarely on the provinces and territories. This is in striking contrast to the U.S. policy dealing with the same funding crisis: the United States' Combating Autism Act of 2006 authorized the federal government to spend $US 945 million over five years for Autism research, screening, intervention and education. Last week the joint U.S. House and Senate conference committee approved $37 million for this year's spending on autism services and treatment programs alone.

While progress has been made, it is clear that Autism Spectrum Disorders have not yet found their rightful place in the health, education and social service sectors at any level of our governments. Working in the Autism field, we hear daily the stories of the mental and financial hardship that parents, family members and many adults with ASD experience. We are deeply concerned about the shortage of services; we recognize from first-hand, on-the-ground experience, the urgent need for qualified professionals to work with individuals with ASD.

Immediate action is needed to address these glaring gaps.

Now that this response has clearly acknowledged the seriousness of the pressures facing families and individuals with Autism - we hope the next step will be for our federal government, in cooperation with all of the provinces and territories, to take a leadership role with respect to Autism. Our growing stakeholder Alliance of ASD advocates and professionals working in the field provides an excellent and willing collaborative resource to assist this government in taking up the Senate's call to develop a comprehensive National ASD Strategy to address the lifespan issues of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. If our government is seeking input in developing such a strategy, the expertise is certainly available.

We call on the Canadian government to embrace the recommendations of its Senate and to show the leadership we so badly need to address this crisis as other countries have done. We all feel strongly that a National Autism Strategy must be formulated very soon and that developing this strategy should be vigorously pursued.

For more information, please contact

Autism Society Canada
Lynn Andrews, Director of Communications
lynn@autismsocietycanada.ca

or

Autism Canada Foundation
Laurie Mawlam, Executive Director
mawlam@ciaccess.com

or

Canadian-American Research Consortium
Jeanette Holden, PhD, Program Director, ASD
holdenj@queensu.ca

or

Autism Speaks Canada
Suzanne Lanthier, Executive Director
slanthier@autismspeaks.org

or

Autism Treatment Services of Canada
Dave Mikkelsen, Executive Director
davem@autism.ca

or

Geneva Centre for Autism
Margaret Whelan, Executive Director
mwhelan@autism.net

National Autism Symposium Script Released

The Script for the Harper Government's National Autism Symposium Stage Production has now been released. The auditions for parts in this staged production are closed (never having been open) . The actors pre-selected by the CIHR will test their acting skills by pretending that they are representative of provincial autism communities, whose organizations were not actually consulted and did not pick their own delegates. Actors must be able to portray real delegates earnestly engaged in discussion of autism issues. The audience will see these skilled actors pretend to arrive at the following conclusions in the final scene:

1) There is no actual increase in autism, it is a figment of our collective consciousness. The authors of one Montreal study say so.

2) There is no consensus about autism treatments, contrary to the silly beliefs of the state agencies in New York, California, Maine, the US Surgeon General, the dozens of Ph.D's and MD's who form the advisory board of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, the researchers who contributed to the recent Cambridge University research sponsored report by Research Autism which ranked autism interventions, the hundreds of thousands of parents across North America seeking ABA services of their autistic children, and the authors of hundreds of research studies showing gains for children who received ABA.

All of these sources will be revealed in the National Autism Symposium Stage Production as having foolishly leaped to the conclusion that ABA is the treatment of choice for autism and should not be accepted as evidence of a consensus about autism treatments.

These are some elements of the script which will be followed at the Stephen Harper National Autism Symposium Stage Production scheduled to be performed November 8 and 9. The full script can be found in the Harper Government Response to the Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Pay Now or Pay Later - Autism Families in Crisis.

Regretfully, members of organizations composed of actual Autism Families in Crisis will be unable to view the Autism Symposium Stage Production. After all this is Canada, not the US, where democracy and law require open public performances at events of importance and where actors must audition for their parts and be democratically selected by the communities they pretend to represent. And after all someone might disrupt the performance, and violate the sensitivities and human rights of the actors, by shouting out such obscenities as "Applied Behavior Analysis", "ABA" or "Medicare".