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ecnomist suntribune social issues thursday nov 14 2002 york parents share resources ithe uman factor a series exploring the struggle to provide services for a growing population staff writer mitchell brown examines childcare issues by mitchell brown staff writer on his good days fiveyearold eric segal remembers the steps to washing his hands from turning on the faucet to drying his hands on a towel on other days he might lick the windows in his home make gagging noises in front of playmates or even worse open the front door of his vaughan house and wander into the street oblivious to the dangers its hard for his mother sharon gabison to describe how grateful she is those days dont happen as often as they used to not since eric started getting the help he needed i always ask myself why ms gabison says while seated in the living room of her vaughan home i often think about what i did in the first trimester what did i breathe what did i drink did i inhale substances in an old build ing or something id really like to know why because if we figure out whats causing the incidence of autism to go up so much id like to know why so we can stop it autism affects as many as one in 200 children and about the only thing experts agree on is the num ber is going up no ones sure what causes it and there are varying degrees of the dis ease with symptoms ranging from repetitive motions and inappropri ate noises to the inability to react to external factors or cope with minor changes in the environment for the children who go untreat ed autism can be a cage for par ents it can be a nightmare in many respects ms gabison is one of the lucky ones a physiotherapist she recognized early her then eightmonthold son staff photobill roberts sharon gabison and son eric 5 perform token economy system therapy in erics special room was slow to develop and so she had him assessed and tested with several specialists to find the cause the official diagnosis came in august 2001 and by that time the treatment he had already received seemed to affect his behaviour part of that treatment was sup plied by the early intervention services department ofyork regions family and childrens services after three months on the wait ing list an interventionist came to assess erics case and she recom mended a preschool speech and language program to help develop his communication skills in the meantime ms gabison came to know other parents of autistic children through local sup port groups she also made the time to find out more about government pro grams on both the local and provin cial levels that were designed to families such as hers the thing is it was very hard at the beginning she said not know ing what to do was probabaly worse it felt overwhelming at first but i dont feel overwhelmed anymore cunently eric is in senior kinder garten and ms gabison praises the school staff for their help in giving eric what he needs to learn she was also lucky enough to get eric into a provincial program for autistic children one that provides funding for intensive behavioural intervention therapy for children up to age six hes getting ok ms gabison said hes not using grammar cor rectly but hes able to request what he wants he still has his behavioural issues his rigidity and his lack of safety issues but hes a very friend ly child very affectionate he still does things that are not appropriate but we still have to work on that in 1996 an average of 52 children were on the waiting list for help each month by 2001 that number had climbed to 85 even with the government assis tance though she estimates it costs her about 24000 a year for her childs therapy her former husband a doctor helps out but the expenses still leave ms gabison in debt there was a news conference at queens park this week where a fam ily talked about having to sell their house to provide services for their autistic kid she said thats not too far removed from my situation my exhusband and i both work and we both have pret ty decent jobs but its hard for any family to meet those kinds of demands if i were a grocery clerk i dont know what i would do especially if i was in an environment where my child wasnt being looked after properly she does in fact know people who are worse off financially than her and she can only praise services such as the regions eis for giving parents a chance to cope just knowing exactly what he needs that helps she said i sometimes think oh my god my life is so difficult but you just have to go ahead and do it and thats it you have no choice really dan beale is happy to hear such stories his eis department helps about 1200 children and their fami lies every year but he admits its becoming harder to keep up with the demand for its services from 1997 through to 2001 weve had a 30 per cent increase in the number of families being served he said thats a significant number we havent had a 30per cent increase in staff in that time its more like 10 to 15 per cent he figures those numbers can easily be explained by the explosive growth of the regions population which has grown from roughly 592000 in 1996 to more than 729000 in 200 but there are other factors affecting the regions ability to pro vide services to its children espe cially the ones most in need of help weve noticed over the past four years an increase in the num ber of kids entering the service who have more than one identified need mr beale said for example where most chil dren might have once needed only some speech therapy now eis is seeing a growing number with a combination of language delays behavioural problems and motor difficulties it takes more time to assess develop and deliver programs for these kids and so they stay longer at the expense of other children the question is if a child was referred to us in say january 2001 were they still in service on dec 31 mr beale said four years ago 15 per cent were still in service last year that number was 55 per cent theyre coming in with higher needs and you cant address those needs in a oneyear period staffing issues specifically the problem of attracting qualified therapists to fill what are often shortterm contract positions and changes in funding must be dealt with by mr beale and his staff at york region headquarters in newmarket for instance the province has increased its funding for the regions infant development programs but it also raised the age requirement for that program meaning more children are eligible to receive help and leaving the region to pick up the tab for the shortfall then of course theres the fact more and more parents are simply aware of the program and doing what they can to help their children in 1996 an average of 52 children were on the waiting list for help each month by 2001 that number had climbed to 85 a 37 per cent increase over the previous year that waiting list concerns mr beale because eis is only available for children up to age six if they dont get the help they need during those crucial preschool years then they may never get it even more troubling than the number of families waiting for help are those who dont even realize they need it those 1200 children under eis care represent about 15 per cent of the regions preschool population said mr beale research on specialneeds chil dren estimates anywhere from three to six per cent of the preschool pop ulation have some kind of condi tion from fetal alcohol syndrome to autism that should be treated before the child goes to school so as good as the early identifi cation is there are still a lot of peo ple that were not seeing mr beale said its not a totally bleak picture but we are kind of falling behind s firkrhfeme furnishings iw sale ends saturday 4747 highway 7 east east of kennedy in markham tel 905 4775524 wwwalmiracom salesalmiracom afurnitijmteriorsa store hours mon wed 10 am 6 pm thufri 10 am 9 pm saturday 10 am- 530 pm sunday closed i