New Brunswick Preschool Autism Intervention Program Receives Boost - Adults with Autism? Still Invisible

Left: My son Conor As I See Him

Right: My son Conor as the PNB Sees Him

I am happy to see the news release posted below outlining the boosts to NB's early intervention program.  The original early intervention program was provided by UNB-CEL when the Lord and Graham governments responded to persistent parent autism advocacy.  As advocates we knew early intervention was the important place to start even though our autistic children would be too old for the early program by the time it could be established. We were also able to get some progress in the school system.  Adult autism care and treatment, particularly adults with severe autism related challenges,  has been largely ignored by the PNB which has preferred to send severely autistic adults to our northern border to the psychiatric hospital in MLA Donald Arseneault's riding.  Their distance from families and lack of autism expertise are of no import as autistic adults like my son above remain largely invisible to our NB government. 

I am posting below the Education and Early Childhood Development Preschool autism intervention program notice in full.  Hopefully someday the PNB will start providing humane care and treatment to autistic adults particularly those with severe challenges.

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News Releasey 

Education and Early Childhood Development
Preschool autism intervention program improved and funding increased
20 December 2016

FREDERICTON (GNB) – The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is introducing an enhanced model for the Preschool Autism Intervention Program and increasing funding.

“In New Brunswick, we are fortunate to have an intervention program that has been recognized nationally and that makes a real difference in the lives of children with autism spectrum disorder,” said Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Brian Kenny. “There are no waiting lists and every child with autism begins receiving services as soon as they are diagnosed. We know that we can make this program even better through these improvements which will increase funding and standardize services across the province while incorporating new evidence-based practices.”

Improvements include:

Providing additional funding per child for services each year, increasing the average funding from $27,500 to almost $33,000 per child.
Providing training for parents to increase their involvement.
Aligning the new model with the school districts to ensure that children are served equally throughout the province and have an easier transition to school. This means that children will receive services by the agency in their school district.
Increasing wages and travel reimbursement for intervention staff, aimed at reducing turnover and improving services.

Increasing the quality of service to children through a pod staffing model that serves 25 children with set ratios of professional to paraprofessional staff to ensure sufficient clinical supervision.

Using the Comprehensive Assessment for Learning and Independence and the Comprehensive Curriculum for Learning and Independence as assessment and intervention tools. These were developed by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Lovaas Institute in Minnesota and are currently being used for children in New Brunswick schools.

Providing training to all agency staff in new intervention strategies and tools to increase the rate of learning for children and help reduce staff turnover.
The province has also developed preschool autism online training which is available to personnel working with children with autism. This training will align with the online training for school professionals and is available across the Atlantic Provinces. It is provided through an interprovincial partnership as part of the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training. The development of the online training is a key element in the positive transition to school for children with autism.

“As part of our efforts to improve this service, we asked families currently using the program, experts, and service providers for their input to better understand the needs of parents and their satisfaction level with the program,” said Kenny. “These improvements are a direct result of the information gathered during those sessions.”

In conjunction with these improvements and to increase transparency and accountability, a request for proposals was issued for the delivery of the enhanced model for the Preschool Autism Intervention Program. The successful proponent, Danielle Pelletier Speech-language Pathologist Corp. DBA Autism Intervention Services, will begin offering services in February. In the meantime, children will continue to receive services from their current agency.

“I am very pleased to have this opportunity to provide preschool autism intervention services to children around the province,” said Danielle Pelletier. “I am looking forward to reaching out to staff in the existing centres to ensure a smooth transition, and look forward to sharing my passion and expertise with families participating in the program.”

Autism spectrum disorder is recognized as one of the most common developmental disorders affecting children in Canada and around the world. The Preschool Autism Program provides 20 hours of intensive behaviour intervention to preschool children with a diagnosis of autism. In 2015-16, this program served 816 children. The goal is to provide early intensive behavior intervention that reduces the features of autism for children. Intervention is most effective in reducing the need for future support when it is carried out intensively during a child’s preschool years.

In the 2016-17 provincial budget, funding to the pre-school autism program was increased by $1.3 million, for a total program budget of $17.2 million.

More information on autism services is available on the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website.

No Adult Autism Centre & Network in NB Where Politics Trumps Health & Well Being - Part I

Campbellton-Dalhouse MLA Donald Arseneault, shown in the CBC photo above, and his political influence in the NB Liberal Party, was fingered by his former Liberal party colleagues Bernard Richard and Michael Murphy as the the force behind the Liberal government's decision to build a complex needs youth facility in Campbellton, far from most families in the province, particularly those in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton.  It is my own personal belief that Arseneault is behind the refusal of the Liberal government to establish an adult autism centre in Fredericton the home of NB autism expertise and close to many families in NB unlike Campbellton-Dalhouse, where severely autistic adults are sent to live their lives far from families in a location on NB's Northern Border. 

Campbellton sits on NB's northern border in the riding of Liberal cabinet minister Donald Arseneault. Adults with severe autism and related conditions will, because of Arseneault's influence, be sent to live in the Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Campbellton far from most families in the south and far from the autism expertise developed in Fredericton. 

Former Liberal cabinet colleague Michael Murphy pulled no punches in identifying Arseneault as the source of the bad decision to place the youth centre in Arsenault's riding:

"As a former minister of health I can tell you how hard it is to get specialists to go to our urban centres versus Toronto — let alone Campbellton," wrote Murphy in one of a series of tweets that suggested the Gallant government was putting "politics first, kids second" with the decision. ....  Murphy blamed the decision on Liberal party politics and pointed to his former cabinet colleague Donald Arseneault as the likely source of the decision. Arseneault is the current minister of energy and mines and represents the riding of Campbellton-Dalhousie in the legislature. Arseneault made the actual announcement in Campbellton on Saturday, rather than Health Minister Victor Boudreau. "Power of Donald Arseneault is evident by this," tweeted Murphy. "The location away from family for most young patients may only aggravate the condition.  But this government is intensely political."

Michael Murphy Q.C., former Minister of Health,  in "Bernard Richard slams choice of location for youth facility Putting mental health unit in Campbellton is 'worst' decision former youth advocate has seen in a while"

I added for emphasis the last section of the Murphy comments where he spoke a plain truth long stated by autism parent advocates on behalf of our autistic adult children ... Campbellton is a location far from family and from the internationally recognized autism expertise developed in Fredericton yet the Liberal government, instead of establishing the proposal for an autism centre in Fredericton as the centre for a network of autism specific homes around the province and near families, the government shovels our severely autistic adults into Arseneault's Campbellton riding Pyschiatric Hospital far from the families who are so important for their health and well being. 

In New Brunswick we became a Canadian leader in the delivery of early autism intervention services. We also made substantial progress in provision of autism training for education aides and resource teachers. Parent advocacy played a very significant role in both of those achievements as well as in pushing successfully to have the government reverse its decision to close the Stan Cassidy Centre autism team which provides consultation for autistic children and youth to age 16.  

In adult autism care despite our successes in early intervention and despite a well considered proposal by NB autism expert Paul McDonnell we have made no progress in establishing an adult autism centre in Fredericton where we have developed autism expertise as the basis for a network of autism specific group homes clearly advocated publicly by Professor Emeritus, Clinical Psychologist and autism expert McDonnell in a 2010 interview with CBC's Dan McHardie: 

"Our greatest need at present is to develop services for adolescents and adults," McDonnell writes.

"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

Among the reforms that the UNB professor is calling for is an enhanced group home system where homes would be connected to a major centre that would develop ongoing training and leadership.

The larger centre could also offer services for people who have mild conditions. But, he said, it could also be used to offer permanent residential care for individuals with more severe diagnoses.

"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," he writes.

"The focus must be on education, positive living experiences and individualized curricula. The key to success is properly trained professionals and staff."

- Paul McDonnell, Professor Emeritus (Psychology), Clinical Psychologist, Autism Expert

Why have we made no progress towards establishing the adult autism centre-network proposed by McDonnell in 2010? ? The answer is simple - politics - specifically NB politics which has been proven to put political considerations ahead of the health and well being of vulnerable New Brunswickers.  Politics, specifically the political influence of  Campbellton-Dalhouse MLA Donald Arseneault trumps the health and well being of severely autistic adults like my son Conor.