FREDERICTON – Parents of children diagnosed with autism have petitioned the province for better access to mental health and adult care support for their kids.
Experts say the province doesn’t have a plan for how to care for those children once they become adults.
Like Fredericton’s Harold Doherty, who worries about what might happen to his 19-year-old autistic son, Connor when he can no longer care for him.
“I’ve tried to give him the best life I can while I have the ability to do it,” he said.
But Doherty says there are no residential care facilities in the province equipped to care for adults like Connor – people with advanced autism.
“If I were to keel over right now of a heart attack his most likely destination would be the Restigouche Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Campbellton.”
Which is why he supports Rebecca Atkinson’s petition calling for an adult care facility for people living with autism in New Brunswick. The petition is also calling for better access to mental health services.
“My daughter is on the higher end of the spectrum but she also suffers from extreme anxiety, as a result of her autism label, for lack of a better term,” she said. “When I called to access mental health services with the province I was turned down because of her autism diagnosis.”
Michelle Gill from Autism Connections Fredericton says New Brunswick has one of the best preschool autism intervention programs in the country, but services for adults is almost nonexistent.
“The mental health professionals are not trained, don’t know how to work with people with autism, it’s horrendous,” she said.
“This is a crisis situation, this is an emergency situation.”
She says about one in 68 kids are diagnosed with autism and those kids will go on to become adults in need of very specialized care.
“They deserve to live their best life as well and a specialized facility will help facilitate that,” she said.
The petition, with all 700 handwritten and online signatures, was tabled in the legislature last week. Health Minister Victor Boudreau has not had a chance to review the petition yet.
“Obviously adult autism is something that we certainly need to take seriously and if there are particular challenges then we need to, at the very least, look at how we can address them,” he said.
Doherty only hopes it’s done in time to help his son.
“Let’s get it done and quit ignoring the problem.”
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