Autism peak body disputes Government figures

Autism Asperger ACT, the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) peak body in the ACT, disputes the ACT Government’s funding claims.

Monique Blakemore, the mother in the ABC’s Stateline program (4/12), said she is moving to England for the sake of her sons with ASD. She said governments here “haven't … kept up with the demand for services” and “they haven't increased funding, they've decreased funding, they've decreased services whilst the autism rates have been increasing”. She says funds decrease in real terms as Therapy ACT has not backfilled vacant positions.

The Commonwealth Government publishes advice on best practice early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. Services in the ACT fall well short of “best practice” for children with autism spectrum disorders unless families can themselves supervise and fund at least two years of intensive ASD-specific treatment for their child.

The Government’s response on Stateline’s website says …

The Government rejects accusations that funding has been reduced and in fact in the 2009-10 Budget the Government provided $5.8 million over four years to increase services provided by Therapy ACT. This includes additional speech pathology services and therapy positions to provide early intervention play based programs.

The “$5.8 million over four years” that the Government refers to may be two Budget items. The Budget Speech says
“$2.28 million in funding will be provided for Play Therapy Services for children with a disability, fulfilling a key election commitment. $3.5 million over four years will provide 8 additional speech pathologists and services for young children with high priority needs; meeting another election commitment and addressing a key area of concern within the ACT community for parents of young children with speech disorders.”

The Play Therapy item is “for children with a disability”, not just for children with ASD. The Speech Therapy item is for “young children with speech disorders”, not for children with ASD.

ACT Government’s Budgets in 2004 and 2005 allocated funds for services intended to include children with ASD. The amounts were $986,000 in 2007 and $657,000 in 2008. The allocation relating explicitly to autism in the 2009 Budget is $461,000. It appears Budget funding is decreasing while the number of children with ASD is growing rapidly.

Bob Buckley, a spokesperson for Autism Asperger ACT, says “the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders has more than doubled every five years for the last two decades. The ACT Government needs to increase services to keep pace. Unless there is a sufficient funding increase, funding and services decrease for each child with autism spectrum disorders.”

“These budget allocations are not exclusively for children with autism spectrum disorders. I doubt the ACT Government knows what funding it contributes to services for children with autism spectrum disorders. It rejects Ms Blakemore’s comment without understanding it and without contrary evidence” Mr Buckley said.

Media contact: Bob Buckley 0418 677 288, vp@autismaspergeract.com.au
14/12/2009

• Stateline link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/12/04/2762759.htm
• Commonwealth Government advice link: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-chi...