GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor from Compass Community Services executive director Joanne Young Evans in regards to a recent story from The Trillium that was run on GuelphToday.
Dear editor
Less than half of autism program spending goes to ‘most important piece’ — core services: docs
Compass Community Services would like to thank Guelph Today for re-publishing this article, shining a light on autism services. Compass is one of a number of organizations, funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, working with those on the autism spectrum.
We empathize with families caring for children with autism and all the challenges associated with their diagnosis. Children with autism benefit from the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) and its services, and while over tens of thousands of children wait for these core autism services, we must remember that as many, if not more, children who have been diagnosed with other intellectual / developmental disabilities receive none of these OAP services due to their ineligibility. These individuals face significant challenges but lack access to necessary services, leaving them overlooked and unheard. This situation underscores a crisis in Ontario's developmental services. All children with intellectual disabilities should be in receipt of additional funding and support to ensure they are not neglected or overlooked.
Compass, as with most agencies in this sector, has received substantially ineffective annualized funding for more than a decade - a three per cent increase for increased services and zero per cent for annualized funding. We just received notice that for the first time in over a decade we will receive a 2.38 per cent increase to our annualized funding in the upcoming fiscal year. Imagine if you ran a business with no revenue increases for over a decade? Would you still be in business? Our wait list for developmental services is months long, staff are abused by those families who are understandably frustrated, and families are relinquishing their children (both youth and adult) in record numbers. The province then pays for crisis/emergency services costing the system much more than is necessary.
The system grows worse each year and by each provincial budget.
I would ask that when we advocate on behalf of those individuals with autism, we advocate on behalf of all individuals with a developmental disability of which autism is only one diagnosis.
Joanne Young Evans
Executive Director
Compass Community Services
