For autistic children in the West Island, time is running out

LACHINE – More than 500 children on the Island of Montreal are languishing on a waiting list for services that can take as long as eight years. For the many autistic children on the list, by the time children get to the end, it can already be too late.

“If you’re on a waiting list when your child is already two, two-and-a-half, you’ve missed that critical time where they find that the interventions work,” said Ermenia Russo, a Pointe-Claire mother of a nine-year-old with autism.

The situation with Russo’s son was mitigated somewhat by the fact that he spent much of his early childhood in Alberta; her husband is Alouettes defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe, whose job has taken him around the country. But her son’s needs are still very real – at nine-years-old, he doesn’t speak.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.

Sign up for weekly health newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“We use pictures. He can show us what he wants, he can guide us to what he wants,” she said. “But he can’t tell us how he feels – is he sick or not sick?”

Lynda Kachaami has a son with autism. Doctors diagnosed the disorder shortly after his second birthday, timely enough for publicly available therapy to make inroads into the problem. But now at age five, he’s still on the waiting list.

“How is it that children that can’t take care of themselves, who can’t fend for themselves, are being left on the wayside, and it’s not a priority?” she said.

Kachaami has had to dip into a family retirement fund to pay for privately funded therapy that she says costs about $3,000 a month.

According to Gary Whittaker, chairman of the board of the West Montreal Readaptation Centre, one of two such centres on the island, the province has consistently underfunded the centre because it has been slow to recognize growth in the West Island.

“Kids and young families have moved in and therefore the incidence or prevalence of something like autism is so much larger,” he said.

The province’s health ministry would not take questions on this topic Friday. According to Whittaker, an autistic child left untreated costs the public health system $5 million, whereas the same child getting treatment costs $250,000.