Autism and Related Disorders in New Brunswick: Dear David Coon, Brian Gallant, Blaine Higgs, and Kris Austin. Please Work Together to Build NB Adult Autism Residential Care and Treatment

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Dear David Coon, Brian Gallant, Blaine Higgs, and Kris Austin. Please Work Together to Build NB Adult Autism Residential Care and Treatment

Dear David Coon, Brian Gallant, Blaine Higgs, and Kris Austin.

Please embrace the NB Autism Spectrum Village Proposal (McDonnell 2015) together and work as a united NB government to begin putting in place the adult residential care network so badly needed. In the attached picture my younger son Conor is happily washing windows at the Willie O'Ree Centre in Fredericton as he loves to do with the assistance of Jobs Unlimited. As I grow older & pass on, residential care & treatment as described in the NB Autism Village Proposal Satellite Model (McDonnell, 2015) will be required for Conor and autistic adults like him who suffer from severe autism, intellectual disability and seizures. Current US CDC figures estimate 1 in 59 persons on the autism spectrum. That would include approximately 44% who suffer from ID. I have forwarded to you, in some cases several times now, the McDonnell 2015 proposal. It is not intended as a final model. It is an excellent model to start working on now to address the needs of those adults with autism who will need permanent care and can not live alone, either completely independently or with assisted. Again please work as a united NB government to begin putting in place the adult residential care network so badly needed.

Respectfully, Conor's Dad

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NB Needs an Adult Autism Center and Network

"Paul McDonnell, September, 2010 "Our greatest need at present is to develop services for adolescents and adults. What is needed is a range of residential and non-residential services and these services need to be staffed with behaviourally trained supervisors and therapists. In the past we have had the sad spectacle of individuals with autism being sent off to institutional settings such as the Campbellton psychiatric hospital, hospital wards, prisons, and even out of the country at enormous expense and without any gains to the individual, the family or the community. We need an enhanced group home system throughout the province in which homes would be linked directly to a major centre that could provide ongoing training, leadership and supervision. That major centre could also provide services for those who are mildly affected as well as permanent residential care and treatment for the most severely affected. Such a secure centre would not be based on a traditional "hospital" model but should, itself, be integrated into the community in a dynamic manner, possibly as part of a private residential development.The focus must be on education, positive living experiences, and individualized curricula. The key to success is properly trained professionals and staff."