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Credit: Jr Media Group - Justin Ruscheinski Photography
April 2 marks World Autism Day and more and more families around the world are struggling to deal with the emotional and financial burden of having a family member who has been diagnosed with autism.
Michael Lewis, president of the board of the Autism Society of British Columbia, and a district councillor of West Vancouver, told Global News that in B.C. one of the most common misconceptions about autism treatment is that it is covered under the Medical Services Plan.
The reality is, if youre doing a full-blown intervention program for your child, you could well be spending $40,000 $60,000 a year and thats a burden that families bear, said Lewis.
The travesty and the tragedy here is that there are interventions that are effective for children and adults with autism that most parents cant access, because they dont have the fiscal resources to do that.
Through the Ministry of Children and Family Development funding programs are currently available to 8,400 children and youth diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families.Currently, approximately 1,400 children under six years of age and 7,000 children and youth over six received funding, compared to only 600 children and youth in total in 2004.
For children under age six, families are eligible to receive$22,000 per year to assist with the cost of autism intervention services, (based on best practices), to promote their childs communication, social-emotional, pre-academic and functional life-skills development.
For children age six to 18, families are eligible for$6,000 a year to assist with the cost of out-of-school intervention services to promote their childs communication, social-emotional, academic and functional life skills.
But Lewis said more needs to be done to help these families.
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MYTH: Autism treatment is covered under B.C. medical plan