Nova Scotia to double funding for early therapy program for autistic children

CORBETT HANCEY

A national autism advocacy group is praising Nova Scotia’s decision to increase its investment in early intervention therapy for young children with the complex neurological disorder. The province announced it will double funding over the next two years to help provide universal access to the program.

The bulk of the funding will support the Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention program, aimed at treating pre-school aged children with autism.

“The numbers are tremendous,” said Suzanne Lanthier, Executive Director of Autism Speaks, a national autism advocacy group.

The announcement comes in response to a report by a team of advisers who called for improved services for people living with autism in a report issued last May.

“They’re taking a recommendation that was contained in that report and actually putting it into action, which is something we really like to see,” Ms. Lanthier said.

The report included 53 recommendations aimed at helping the province deal with an increasing number of people diagnosed with autism.

Until now, the province had been offering one-on-one therapy by psychologists, support workers and speech language pathologists to pre-school-aged children through a lottery because of a lack of funding. Children are considered pre-school-aged in Nova Scotia until they turn 6, but if parents choose to send their kids to school at 4, they’re no longer eligible for the program.

The province says only half the children who need the therapy are receiving it.

Jenn Fancy de Mena, President of the Annapolis Valley Autism Support Team in Nova Scotia thinks the funding is a step in the right direction, but worries the decision ignores older children with autism.

“I presume they’re operating from the belief that the younger the children get therapy the better it is, she said.

“Unfortunately that leaves out a whole group of kids. My son gets no money and no treatment right now.”

Ms. Lanthier of Autism Speaks acknowledges that despite new funding announcements parents of children with autism will still be going into debt to pay for treatment.

She said that even funding in British Columbia, where the government provides $22,000 per autistic child per year, is not enough.

“If you’re talking about a really multi-disciplinary, comprehensive treatment plan that includes behavior modification, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy...you could be talking $60,000-$80,000 per year.”