Parents protest at Polak's office
Cloverdale father Chris Doucette (right) protests outside Langley MLA Mary Polak’s office last Friday morning. His autistic daughter Jessica was going to enter into the EIBI program, which Polak has cut. The program will end in January.
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Updated: November 12, 2009 4:58 PM
Dozens of parents and children braved bitter cold winds and rain to protest outside Langley MLA Mary Polak’s office on Nov. 6.
At least 30 parents of autistic children protested because Polak, Minister of Children and Family Development, cut the early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) program for special needs kids.
Cloverdale father Chris Doucette said his daughter Jessica, who is autistic, was set to enter the program in 2010.
The EIBI program is considered vital by parents of autistic children, he said.
“My wife is crying four times a week because she wonders what will happen for Jessica now,” said Doucette.
The program combines a raft of autism service providers such as speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, behavioural consultants and behaviour interventionists in an integrated fashion. The important one-on-one therapy has shown to be key to helping autistic children have higher level of functioning.
“It’s already devastating when you are given this diagnosis and you don’t have any clue what to do next. And now, Mary is saying ‘here, you qualify for $20,000. Go out and develop your own programs for your child.’ We aren’t the experts and not only that but this amount will cover very little,” he said.
There are 21 children who are currently at the local EIBI centre from Langley, Aldergrove, Delta and the White Rock area.
The EIBI program, which began in 2001, currently has 70 children enrolled across B.C. at a cost of $70,000 per child.
Polak said the money used for EIBI funding will go to parents of autistic children under six increasing by $2,000 to $22,000 and $1 million going to improve autism outreach services in rural B.C.
But in an earlier interview, she said treatment for children who were in the program will probably have to be scaled back.
Doucette and many of the parents at the protest, some of whom came over on the 5 a.m. ferry from Victoria, stressed the importance of early intervention and how key it is to reach autistic children before they turn six. The EIBI program was doing just that, they said.
“Before my daughter received one-on-one, two hours a day, she wouldn’t look at us when we called her name. Now she looks at us and reacts. It’s wonderful,” he said.
One parent said Polak’s decision is forcing parents to find and pay for their own occupational and speech therapists as well as behavioural interventionists, which usually costs around $100 per hour.
“I think Mary wants us to go out and put an ad in Craigslist for help for our children,” said Dawn Steele, co-ordinator of Moms on the Move (parents of children with special needs). She said if it wasn’t for early intervention with her autistic son, he wouldn’t be going on to graduate high school in a few years.
“He will be able to live on his own and maintain a job. Had he not been helped, he might be in government care, which costs $150,000 per year,” said Steele.
An expert, who specializes in the early childhood development of special needs children, said the decision by the Ministry is a ‘disaster’ for 12,000 families in B.C.
This expert, who didn’t want to be named, said the ministry is “playing a straight numbers game. It’s not rooted around quality of care.”
The expert said cutting the EIBI funding essentially means the ministry is making parents become the employer of all these different therapists. Parents will soon have to fill out mounds of paperwork and look at resumes trying to determine who is best qualified to help their children, the expert said.
