Record government spending still not helping family with violent autistic son

We are digging deeper tonight into a story we told you about yesterday. A family in crisis unable to have find help for their eight-year old child who has autism. He is violent and they can’t access the care he needs. They are scared for him and for themselves. I don’t know how I’m still lasting, to be honest. And he’s only eight. He’s only going to get bigger and stronger, and it’s only going to be harder to handle. Mason is just eight years old and weighs 180 lbs. He’s already broken his mother’s nose twice and sent his grandmother to hospital with a broken rib. His mother says there is no help and she fears one day he will unintentionally kill her. It’s dangerous to be with him alone. It’s it’s hard. It’s really hard. Last year, an 18 year old with Asperger’s, a form of autism, was charged with his mother’s death in the Ottawa area. According to reports, Lisa Sharp was afraid of her son and had been struggling to get him help. The Ontario Autism Coalition says families have been suffering under these extreme circumstances for decades. We hear the story quite frequently from our community. There’s never been a Catch All program to help families who have this level of need in Ontario. And yet the Ford government is spending more on the autism file than any other government in this province’s history, $720 million. That’s double the funding since it came to power. There are currently an estimated 50,000 children on the wait list for core services, enough to fill the Rogers Center. They have doubled the autism funding and tripled the wait list for core services. So if families aren’t getting those core services at a very young age, we’re seeing children like Mason now getting to the age of eight, who’s probably never had a day of service. And this is what we’re seeing. This is actually a real good day. Mason did not get early intervention. He was on the wait list for services for five years and only started to receive funding in January. So the most vulnerable children are not getting what they need. That’s correct. A study last year by the CDC found up to 26% of autistic children have profound needs and are in danger of self harm. That doesn’t mean all their behaviors are as extreme as Masons. But his family is not alone. I hear from dozens, and that’s the ones that reach out. A lot of people are afraid to reach out. They’re embarrassed by what’s happening, that they can’t manage. Should there be a crisis team when you have a family that is this shattered? I think a crisis team would be fantastic. Right now families in this position are resorting to desperate measures. They will go into emergency and sit down until someone helps them. They have to call police on their children. Alina Cameron is careful to give the Ford government credit. The funding is fantastic, we just wish it were being used in a better way. She worries too much of the budget is being spent on administration and not enough on giving children like Mason the care they need. I think that the current minister is trying. The fact that they’re willing to listen to our community is really important. We asked for an interview with the minister of Children, Community and Social services and we’re promised we could speak with him next week. For now, we were given a statement that says, in part, there are urgent response services designed to help stabilize situations and prevent the risk of harm. Jason’s mother tells me she does have an urgent response worker, but they don’t come to her home. It’s a one hour phone call once a week, she says. They tell her they are at a loss of what to do.