Families with autistic children need at least $70-$80,000 a year to provide their children the adequate services they need. What happened to Premier Gordon Campbell's promise to keep up health care, education, and children's services? Gordon Campbell, we need to talk.
As a parent of a child with autism enrolled in the EIBI program, I have seen significant changes in just three months. Prior to the EIBI program we attempted the private therapy method but with much less success.
The government sends you a cheque every month which totals $20,000 a year. You have to hire a program manager from Vancouver at a minimum rate of at least $100 an hour. Then you have to hire your own BA (Behavior Assistant). Your program manager is required to train your BA, this could be as infrequent as once per month. Online conferencing may be an option, however if you only have access to a dial up connection Internet training doesn't work. Your child will now become a guinea pig for your BA to learn from as they learn from the Program Manager. You now are required to pay for WCB, get a Revenue Canada business number and do payroll. The funding allows you to spend up to 20% for materials used for therapy. If you use money for materials, you dip into your budget for the therapy itself.
During our time working with a private therapist we averaged 7.5hrs a week for therapy. That was all we could afford. After three months, we only saw our program manager twice. There was little improvement to my child in the three months. He still wasn't talking, interacting with peers, still had lots of temper tantrums, and the list goes on.
The EIBI method:
The government gives this program $70,000 a year directly to the EIBI program. All the staff is provided and there is no paperwork involved for the parents. Your child has access to a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist, your program manager and a multiple of educated and trained BA's. All of these people have received post graduate education working with families and children as well as specific training for working with children on the Autism Spectrum.
By the first day, my son learned to point to items that he wanted instead of whining, crying, taking my hand and dragging me to an item that he wanted. Within two and a half weeks with the EIBI program he started to talk, temper tantrums dropped significantly and there were improvements on a daily basis with communication to get things he needs instead of just screaming.
"My child now interacts and plays with other children, and tries talking to them. Eye contact has improved, vocabulary has increased and we hear many spontaneous words when before there were no words at all."
Our BA attends pre-school with him, which is extremely important as my child now interacts more with other children. If no EIBI program is available, my child will have to be withdrawn from pre-school. I live in a rural area and all EIBI employees come to my house every day for three hours and sometimes twice a day. We receive 15-20hrs of therapy a week, and the EIBI program provides all materials required for therapy.
In Conclusion:
The government is arguing that by closing the EIBI program down they can help more children with autism and increase their funding from $20,000 to $22,000. They won't be helping more children because all children in BC that have legally been diagnosed with Autism are entitled to the autism funding.
It is the same children receiving the money and of course the children about to be diagnosed will as well. The $2000 increase won't make a difference in the child's therapy, because they are adding on the harmonized sales next year, and that money will barely cover it. So the government is making you think you are getting extra, but it is just ending up back in their pockets. So they are not helping more children at all, they are hurting the very fortunate children that are enrolled in the EIBI program and trying to cover up their efforts to "save money."
"We want to keep the EIBI program operational and have it available for ALL AUTISTIC CHILDREN across BC."
Samantha & Dru Warden (parents)
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