A St-Lambert family is speaking out about the lack of English services for adults with autism. Mark Zeron’s family is looking for a new bilingual foster home for the 48-year-old since his current foster family has trouble controlling his outbursts.
“He reacts sometimes by pushing people and the last time it happened, the police were called,” his mother Margo Zeron said. “Right now, frankly, I’m worrying about his safety.”
Zeron has autism and has gone through a long list of life changes in the last few years. His father passed away, and his aging mother could no longer look after him so he was placed in a foster home for the first time in his life.
“There’s nothing bilingual. He’s anglophone, he expresses himself in English,” his sister Anne Zeron told Global News. “And where there would be some perhaps in Montreal or on the West Island but because we’re in the CISSS (Integrated health and social services centres) of this region, we can’t access the services in the CISSS of that region.”
A spokesperson for their regional health board claims it’s not common practice to transfer cases from one region to another. This, despite the fact that there’s a shortage of foster families on the South Shore, especially those who speak English.
“We have over 400 foster homes in Montérégie, of course, we have less in English,” Jade St-Jean, a spokesperson for CISSS Montérégie-Ouest said. “But people are working hard to find a family [for him]. I cannot tell you a timeframe.”
Zeron’s family was told it could take years to find a new bilingual foster home, and they insist he can’t wait that long.
“I can tell you the average for even getting into a French foster home is 8-10 years so I could only imagine what it would be on the English side,” Anne said. “The only way to get a spot it seems in the province is to have a catastrophe happen.”
The family is now calling on Quebec’s health care and social services ministers to intervene and agree to transfer him to another region on compassionate grounds.
“He’s sort of the first generation of children who were raised entirely by their families and didn’t get placed in an institution,” his sister Anne Zeron told Global News. “But now that we need help, there is none.”
The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) is currently in the process of helping the Zeron family file a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
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