Location of an Autism Unit in the Restigouche is "JUST NONSENSE" - Move the RHC Autism Unit to Fredericton

If you look at the bottom of this NB government map you will find the heavily populated communities of Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John. If you look at the very top you will find Campbellton where you will find a shrinking rural population and the Restigouche Hospital Centre (RHC) where NB MLAs have sent youth and adults with severe autism challenges

The Restigouche Hospital Centre (RHC) has an autism unit but has failed to protect and provide decent residential care and treatment for its residents. It is located as far as possible from Fredericton autism expertise and from the vast majority of NB population and families in the south

Ken McGeorge is recognized as a Health Expert (eg. CBC) and is currently a Telegraph Journal Health Care Reform columnist.  In the Friday, January 24, 2020 edition of the TJ he provided a commentary "How many MLAs does it take to reform health care?" in which he made a number of observations about the sad state of health care in New Brunswick and how it is part of a problem which could interfere with NB efforts to attract new populations to locate and live in our province.  One of the issues he touches on is the attempt to replicate health services requiring expertise in rural, small population communities around the province.  He calls such attempts "nonsense" and cites a recent example which shows by way of contrast what SHOULD be done in locating health care facilities  - the location of the "youth treatment centre" in Moncton:

"The organization of clinical services in the province is still a matter that causes grief, with multiple small specialty programs operating independently and struggling as a result. ... But all communities - particularly Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John, combined with the other "regional" centres, compete and apply enormous pressure on MLAs to preserve that which is hard to justify on either economic or qualitative grounds. The recent decision regarding the youth treatment centre is one such illustration. Based on evidence and quality programming, everyone who understood the facts supported locating the centre in Moncton. Why? Because Moncton has specialized  personnel and services that do not exist anywhere else in the province. To think that it is possible to replicate that support in a community distanced from academic and research centres is just nonsense."    (Bold highlighting added -HLD)

It is long past time to move the Autism Unit from Campbellton on our Northern Border where it is part of the failed Restigouche Hospital Centre to Fredericton where it would be much more centrally located and close to autism expertise which has developed over the last 15 years and could much more easily expand on that expertise. The Ombud report "Failure to Protect" has documented the abuse and neglect of residents of the Restigouche Hospital Centre (the RHC). CBC's Karissa Donkin has reported major, serious employee discipline issues, including violence, threats and insubordination,  at the RHC. Parent advocates have long called for an end to the autism unit and establishment of an Autism Village of  autism trained residential care facilities with a centre in Fredericton to provide education, training and oversight, with permanent residential care for the most severely challenged, dating back to the 2008 submission by the Autism Society New Brunswick.

The McGeorge column is a major step forward in understanding why the Failed  RHC in Campbellton has attracted MLA support despite its failure in providing humane, professional and responsible care for its residents including those in the RHC Autism Unit.  Stop making excuses and move the RHC Autism Unit to Fredericton near the Stan Cassidy autism team, the UNB-CEL autism program and the UNB Department of Psychology.  

Build the autism centre in Fredericton and develop autism residential care homes in locations around the province according to population needs.