My son Conor and I will, weather and
autism circumstances permitting, be conducting an adult autism center
information protest this Thursday June 30 at the Legislature.
New Brunswick has received world
recognition for it’s bilingual early autism intervention programs and families
have moved to NB from elsewhere in Canada to obtain early autism intervention services for their autistic
children. We have also made very
significant gains in education with hundreds of autism trained education
assistants and BCBA qualified resource teachers and assistants. Despite the expertise developed in autism
services successive governments have refused to develop the autism center and
network recommended by NB autism expert
Paul McDonnell in a 2010 CBC interview even though Department
of Social Development Media
Representative Mark Barbour in a 2011
interview with then Aquinian journalist/student, now CBC journalist Karissa
Donkin stated that the PNB wanted to develop an adult autism residential center
to provide care for those with severe autism:
“There is a need for more
specialized services for autistic youth and adults, whose behaviours or
conditions are severely impaired.
“These individuals require services
and supports designed to specifically meet their high care needs.”
The province wants to build an
autism residential facility, which would provide permanent care for severely
autistic adults who can’t live on their own, Barbour said.”
The expertise to provide the specialized
services for autistic youth and adults exists in Fredericton where the early
intervention programs were developed with UNB-CEL autism intervention programs,
assistance from UNB Psychology were available and willing. The bilingual
training has proven very effective. But
autistic adults have been sent far from the largest segment of the NB
population at the Campbellton Regional Psychiatric Hospital on our Northern
border with Quebec and in Spurwink, Maine in the United States. Such separation from families can be harmful
as discussed by NB autism expert Paul McDonnell in a 2010 CBC interview
“Autistic adults are often sent to privately run group homes or in extreme cases, sent to psychiatric care in Campbellton or out of province.
“It’s fairly
expensive to put people in group homes and if you have to send people out of
the province then it’s much, much more expensive,” McDonnell said.
“If they’re placed far away from their families, that creates a lot of hardship as well. A lot
of people aren’t functioning at the level they could. They’re simply not having
the quality of life they should be having.”
McDonnell thinks
the province needs to train people to be prepared to deal with adults with
severe behavioural challenges.
“They should have
stimulating recreational, educational programs. That is absolutely essential.
“That’s what we
need to aim towards is setting up a system where we have some really
well-trained people.”
Harold L Doherty
Conor’s Dad
506 447-1592
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