Families of children with autism continue to wait for publicly-funded support

Families with children who are living with autism received some difficult news about wait times surrounding crucial therapy and support.

Government documents show most children waiting for provincially-funded supports won’t be getting help anytime soon.

“Families have been asking for a long time to know how many people are asking for these services, how many people are waiting and how long will the wait be,” said Janet McGlaughlin, the parent of a child with autism and the co-founder of the Laurier Autism Research Consortium.

In 2019, the Ford government unveiled a needs-based program, where a child is registered and the severity of their needs are assessed before receiving funds for supports.

According to an internal file obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request, close to 60,000 children are in need of core clinical therapies, with another 7,000 added each year.

The Ontario Autism Program’s budget of $667 million is only enough to support around 20,000 children.

“It’s infuriating that families have been begging the ministry for this information for so long,” said Alina Cameron, President of the Ontario Autism Coalition.

She added that the province’s biggest mistake was keeping families in the dark.

“Here we are, getting information from FOI because we haven’t heard from them,” said Cameron.

“If you know exactly when that therapy is coming then you can make informed decisions,” added McGlaughlin. “But, if you have no idea if this will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years, it’s really hard.”

In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said in part:

“We doubled the program’s budget and increased it a further 10 per cent this year to $660 million. We’re going to keep meeting benchmarks and making progress as we implement a needs-based program that supports children and youth with autism and their families.”

In the meantime, families continue to wait and pay out of pocket.

“You’re looking at bills sometimes over $100,000 a year,” said Cameron.

The document did not reveal how many families are receiving publicly-funded services.

Families on the waitlist were offered a one-time funding of either $5,500 or $22,000, depending on the child’s age.

Though, anyone who registered for the Ontario Autism Program after March of 2021 has not received any money.