Most children in Ontario waiting for major government-funded autism therapy will not get it soon, the government says in an internal assessment obtained by the Canadian Press.
Days into his new role this spring as Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Michael Parsa was given a transition connector with information on the files he now oversees.
The document obtained through a Freedom of Information request provides a much more complete picture of the Autism Program in Ontario than the Progressive Conservative government has so far disclosed publicly.
The program’s current budget is $ 667 million, but that will only serve about 20,000 children in essential clinical therapies, the document says. Meanwhile, there are about 60,000 children seeking services through the program and about 7,000 more are added to the list each year.
“Families can access a range of other OAP services, but most children and young people will not receive key clinical service funding in the short to medium term,” the document says.
“More children and young people sign up for the programme than age each year, which means the waiting list for key clinical services will continue to grow without further investment.”
Alina Cameron, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, said some kind of information about the timing is exactly what families have begged the government to disclose.
Many families pay for therapy for their children out of pocket while they wait for public funds, and they need to know whether to remortgage their home, for example, in order to continue footing the bill, Cameron said.
“They say exactly in the document that there will be several years of waiting-it is exactly there in black and white and they are not articulating this,” she said.
“Be honest with your family. Yes, they will be crazy, but people need to listen to it and plan for the future. They need to understand that there will be a gap, they will have to wait.”
This internal assessment suggests that the program is no better than it was in February 2019, Cameron said.
The Conservatives scrapped the former Liberal government’s need-based Autism Program four and a half years ago because it had long waits. Their needs-based program is currently in place, with long waits.
“They could have invested all this time in capacity building, instead of disrupting the program and letting it stay for five years,” Cameron said.
Meanwhile, the government gave families on the waiting list temporary “one-time” funds of $ 22,000 or $ 5,500 depending on a child’s age. The government also ended up issuing a second round of” one-time” funding, but anyone who registered for the OAP after March 31, 2021 has received none.
“Depending on when they transition to key clinical services, some of these children and young people may experience a gap in services,” says Parsa’s transition connector.
Intensive behavioral therapy can cost over $ 80,000 or $ 90,000 a year, families say.
The ministry is monitoring” levels of need and how households prioritize spending their funding allocations ” and will give the Treasury Board an updated forecast in the autumn for costs and the waiting list, the internal document says.
The Progressive Conservatives already more than doubled the program’s budget, but more is needed, the document suggests.
“An increased investment in key clinical services will help increase the number of children receiving key clinical services, minimize service gaps for some families, and slow the growth of the waiting list,” she says.
Since March, more than 12,000 children were registered to receive essential services, the document says. About 6,400 had completed their needs determination interview, through which their level of funding is determined. The money is supposed to flow fairly quickly, although some families have reported delays in getting it or are unable to spend it due to a lack of therapists.
The document does not reveal the number of households that actually receive government – funded essential services-a number the government has previously refused to disclose.
However, there are more than 3,000 children who were already in government-funded therapy when the Progressive Conservatives scrapped the previous government’s plan.
Their funding levels have been maintained so far, but about half will eventually receive less government-funded therapy because their current programs exceed the maximum funding allocation for the new provincial program.
Patrick Bissett, a spokesman for Parsa, wrote in a statement that there are a “large” number of families that have not responded to AccessOAP’s efforts – an organization that helps administer the program – to enroll them for key clinical services.
“Since AccessOAP does not know when or if unresponsive families will respond to their invitation (key clinical services), this is affecting their ability to issue new CCS invitations and enroll more children in the service,” he wrote.
“We urge all families who have received CCS invitations to respond to those invitations as soon as possible.”
This report by Canadian Press was first published on July 26, 2023.
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