Austism Support in Australia
Russell Brown blogs over at humans.org.nz about autism support and the Australian election campaign.
Both Kevin Rudd and John Howard announced significant (read massive) funding packages for supporting families with autistic children. This got into the usual argument over who is leading and who is following. But then a useful suggestion:
Amid the bickering about who was cribbing from whom, Rudd made a sensible suggestion: whichever party won the election, both should unite on policy. I think the job for those of us who want to see greater attention to autism and education support here should be look for such a political consensus.
Not a bad idea. While it is necessary to have policy differences in key areas – to give the public choice, it is sensible to not politicise every single area of policy. That would be a nice challenge for the major parties in New Zealand – a bipartisan policy on support for families with autistic children.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
A thousand times yes.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:22 am
My wife teaches new entrants.
She has one pupil who is at the highest end of the autism spectrum and another who has Asperger, the lower end of the spectrum. The former child is challenging but placid, and receives state-funded 80% coverage for an in-classroom support person. This is down from 100% coverage at kindergarten.
The latter child is hyperactive (not just juvenile exuberance!) and receives no in-classroom support. My wife (who already works 50+ hours per week, sometimes 60+…) is paid pittance while the bureaucrats at MoE wallow in salary increases. She’ll be quitting teaching next year and NZ will be every-so-slightly the worse for it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:32 am
kk been there done that. It’s the same in the UK I earned decent money as a temp – I could command that for work in respite centres, but classroom assistance and teaching – honestly, it is insulting what people are paid for what they do, including toilet duties, all the behavioural issues, health and safety, plus the interpersonal skills required.
I know just where your wife is coming from. Like you say, “the bureaucrats at MoE wallow in salary increases. ”
People who do the interpersonal stuff, are just the cannon-fodder, while the higher-ups reap the kudos when they go to dinner-parties and tell others how they are ‘making a difference’..
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Thanks for this David.
Hilary Stace and I got a good hearing with some government people recently, and I hope we can do the same with Bill English (who gave a fine speech at the launch of David Cohen’s book recently) at some point.
I don’t even think the solutions have to be exactly the same, just that a common understanding of the problems is really important.
There are quite a few issues, from a lack of specialist understanding in the system to a simple lack of funding. Our older boy got ORRS (ongoing resource funding that lasts until he’s 18) because we applied just after National introduced the new funding system (and even then we only got it because we were able to write a persuasive appeal). That means teacher aide hours through his whole school career. As a result, he’s accumulating NCEA credits and will exceed the lamentable expectations of the ed-psych who suggested we find him a job parking trolleys. But if we were applying today there’s no way he’d get that funding.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Mmmmm……
Does autism have a spelling challenge
Deos atsuim hvae a selplnig clenlgahe
“Austism Support in Australia”
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Awareness of autism has apparently received a huge boost in the US because Oprah has taken up the cause after Jenny McCarthy (yes, that Jenny McCarthy – no talent, but few noticed because it was her breasts that always starred in anything anyway) has written a book on it since her son Evan was diagnosed autistic.
(Yes, I never thought I’d use the words “Jenny McCarthy” and “written a book” in the same sentence either. I assume it was heavily ghosted).
Sadly, in our celebrity-obsessed fruitfly attention span world, it seems something like that is needed to draw attention to the problem.
Hear hear, by the way, on the idea of bipartisan policies for families with autism, to give them some certainty as to future levels of support. And while we’re at it, for families caring for children and adults with other conditions which require care.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Well well, why just Autism, (here I go on my political high horse) any person with an intellectual disabilty needs better support than this lame assed government provides. As a provider I am sick of hearing what can only be described as “emotionally gut wrenching” stories of people in my own local area as they deal with trying to get a fair go out of the Ministry of Healths Disability Directorate, who have very rigid funding rules for the pittance that they make people grovel for.
Time to start looking after our disabled and their families properly, then at least we might be making a start at being a “civilised” community.