Drew

Thursday, 28 May 2009 00:00

Drew was officially diagnosed with autism at age 3 in March 2007. It took over one year to get from the point of saying “there’s something wrong, he has lost speech and stopped turning to his name” to the point of formal diagnosis.

Drew has been on the autism CEAP waitlist for nearly two and a half years. The waitlist in our region is moving incredibly slow—it moves at approximately one spot per month (over the past year). Drew’s current waitlist number is 43. At this rate, it will be a further three and a half years before he’ll be eligible for funding. Clearly, this is not acceptable.

We have been paying for private IBI for two years now. We are spending $30,000 per year for 15 hours of therapy per week. We also pursue biomedical therapies, at an additional cost to us.

Drew’s progress has been documented by a significant improvement in the diagnostic ADOS score of 18/20 down to 11/20 (lower being better). Our quality of life has improved significantly as he has improved. He now talks, dresses himself, and is nearly fully toilet trained.

We struggle with the stresses that having a child with autism brings. I have taken one and a half years off work to help manage his therapies. We love our son, and will do everything in our power to help him have a happy and successful life. I wish our government had the compassion to do the same. He has so much promise and is not a write-off.

In spring 2010, after three years and three weeks on the wait list, Drew was finally picked up for IBI funding, and he is making progress with the 20 hours per week of therapy he now receives.