The Martlet

It hasn’t been a great month for B.C.’s budget.

Since September, the provincial government cut funding to numerous organizations including arts groups, Special Olympic athletes, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder research and community groups. After intense public outcry, some of these funds were reinstated.

On Sept. 16, the Minister of Child and Family Services Mary Polak blindsided the province’s autism Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) programs by announcing their effective closure on Jan. 31, 2010.  

This decision will affect 70 children currently enrolled in these programs, families with children on waiting lists, and children yet to be diagnosed with autism.

I am a student who has volunteered at Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health for the past two and a half years, 18 months of which I have spent volunteering with a family affected by autism. I was devastated by Polak’s decision to cancel the province’s EIBI programs.

Children with autism face numerous challenges: severe difficulty communicating and interacting socially, repetitive behavior and attachment to routines.

EIBI programs include access to speech-language pathology and occupational and behavioral therapy, which are frequently inaccessible or too expensive for families to access.

Initially, Polak claimed that EIBI programs were discontinued because the province was “not seeing any appreciable improvements in the outcomes” of children enrolled in them.

This statement directly contradicts the overwhelming body of research which endorses EIBI programs, indicating that children have better outcomes the younger they begin and if they are receiving at least 20 hours per week, which now will no longer be reached.

Days after her initial announcement, Polak backtracked on her claim that EIBI programs were a waste of resources, stating that “whether or not there was a greater improvement or an appreciable difference between the programs was not the issue” upon which her decision was based.

Instead, she espoused the benefits of these programs, while shifting the reason for their cancellation to an issue of equality; she claimed it was unfair that only some children had access to EIBI programs.

As parents of children receiving EIBI services at Queen Alexandra pointed out in a press release two weeks ago, “only 70 children at a time receive EIBI therapy not because of special privilege, but because of the program’s limited capacity.”

Why was expanding these programs not an option, since the Minister seems committed to ensuring that as many children as possible receive an adequate amount of therapy?

To provide increased services for BC children with autism, the $20,000 in provincial funding families receive for behavioral therapy will increase to $22,000 as of April 1, 2010. 

Polak also announced the launch of a vaguely outlined provincial outreach program aimed at improving access to professional services in rural areas.

However, the benefits reaped by this $2,000 increase will not come close to compensating the children directly affected by the cancelation of EIBI programs. An extra $2,000 will only provide one additional hour of therapy per week, hardly a fair trade for the individualized, intensive therapy they were receiving before.

Further complicating matters, Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman recently confirmed that the province has nationally committed $20 million to the construction of an autism research and education centre in Vancouver.

While most of the details of this centre remain shrouded, this announcement sharply contrasts the province’s decision to shut down EIBI programs.

How can the government justify the allocation of $20 million for the creation of a centre that may not offer therapy services for children with autism when it has effectively shattered the lives of these same children by taking away a proven $5-million program?

Without EIBI programs, many children with autism may never learn to communicate effectively, integrate into the public school system, have positive social interactions with children their own age or become self-sufficient when they are older. Over 800 families across the province are already struggling to take care of their children with autism, often without any form of respite care or access to EIBI programs.

Parents around the province have been working tirelessly for the past few weeks in an effort to force the government to reconsider this shortsighted and uninformed decision.

Carol James briefly attended a raly in Victoria on Oct. 7. Two more rallies, one in Kamloops,one in Kelowna, are scheduled for Oct. 18.

If you feel strongly about this issue, please take the time to write or email your MLA (find your MLA at leg.bc.ca/mla), Minister Polak (Minister.MCF@gov.bc.ca), or your local newspaper.

Many children affected by autism in this province have not yet found their voices. Please, do not let them be silenced forever.