After key Ontario treatment centre plans cuts for autistic youth, 2 organizations step up to help

Two Toronto organizations say they are willing to help families that will be affected by impending cuts at Ontario's largest children's treatment centre for autistic children.

Officials at Monarch House and Lumenus Community Services, both in in North York, say they are surprised that ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development has announced that it will bring an end to its core clinical services for autistic youth in August.

"We were very shocked and surprised and also very saddened by the news, especially given the number of families that have been served by ErinoakKids for so many years and their long history in the community of Halton and Peel region," Rachel Koffman, chief operating officer of Monarch House, said on Monday.

Monarch House is a national service provider for children and families with autism. Lumenus is a Toronto organization that offers mental health, developmental, autism and early years intervention services to children, youth, families and individuals.

ErinOaks ending offerings citing costs, staffing

ErinoakKids says the centre is ending the services offered through its fee-for-service autism programs because it hasn't been able to recover the costs or hire sufficient staff.

Koffman says Monarch House wants families to know the facility is around to help.

"Since hearing the news ... we've done everything that we can to remove barriers and provide support to families that were receiving services at ErinoakKids and also were in the community waiting for services so we could provide as seamless a transition as possible," she said.

"We are really committed to staying in the community for the long term," she added, pointing out that in the past year, the organization has expanded to two new locations.

Koffman said access is life-changing.

"Access to services not only can help a child learn and grow and have the best quality of life possible, but it also provides an immense amount of support and a community for families who might otherwise feel alone."

Melissa Fielding, director of customer care at Lumenus Community Services, said the organization is growing its core clinical division and has some openings for its fall intake in September for families who need support.

"It really broke my heart and I was moved to reach out so that, if we could be of support to these families and we could get them the support they're looking for, and they're within the area, we definitely want to do that and be supportive of them," Fielding said.

On its website, ErinoakKids says it serves more than 20,000 children and youth with disabilities and their families each year, including providing autism services.

In the spring, the centre temporarily suspended its respite service while it worked to revamp that program. But advocates and parents struggling to find support for their children say with its state-of-the-art facilities, ErinoakKids has an obligation to provide core clinical services for children with autism.

Core clinical services is one of the streams of support for children registered in the Ontario Autism Program and can include applied behaviour analysis, speech language pathology and occupational therapy.

Families have said they would have appreciated more consultation on the move, and point out other programs have years-long wait lists, making finding the supports they need elsewhere a huge challenge.

Parents, advocates say treatment medically necessary

Parents and advocates say there needs to be a broad view on how autism services are funded and delivered.

Bruce Petherick, an autistic advocate with Autism Canada, said the services are simply not available, and when they are, there are huge waiting lists.

"We are available to help families with finding resources as best as possible, but it's difficult."

Jamie Peddle, co-founder of the Canadian Autism Treatment for Medicare, said he wasn't surprised by the announced cut but that autism treatment is medically necessary.

"It's a health care issue. The treatment is medically necessary. And people should be using their health cards, not their visa cards," he said.

"Don't... families that have children with autism need medically necessary treatment? Don't their lives matter to anybody?"