Becca received an unexpected phone call today. Then she started to cry. She busted into my office, breathless. Her news caused me to go into shock for several minutes.
We have just secured a direct funding spot for Alanna from Thames Valley. The earliest we expected this news was September. Those of you who are paying privately for Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) know this is the call you wait for. It's like being told you just won $50,000 in the lottery because that's how much it costs to pay for IBI annually, done properly. It will release us from a huge financial burden, assuming she can remain eligible for service until she goes to school. Presently, Alanna is two and a half, so we hope the earliest they could transition her to school would be in a year and a half. Hopefully she can remain eligible until she is five or six, unless she does so well she "recovers" (I use that term to mean she no longer tests in the autistic range in standard psychological testing.)
For those of you still on the waiting list - I expect you'll be happy for us, but also ticked that you're still on the list. We have been very blessed, only waiting nine months. Most people wait two to three years. While the regional system in Ontario works pretty well for us, it sucks if you live practically anywhere else, especially in Greater Toronto or in the North.
The irony is, if we'd waited on the public system, Alanna would just be seeing a developmental paediatrician now. She wouldn't even have a diagnosis yet.
The system isn't fair. But today, I can only look to the future with a renewed sense of hope about possibilities. I'll take that. I could use some hope. We all could.
Congratulations. I have been complaining about the services in Iceland. We were put on hold for a year and started full time aba when my son was three and a half. Seems like Iceland is not doing so bad after all.
ReplyDeleteI am very glad to find a blog where someone is dooing intensive aba and I look forward to follow your progress.
Þorgerður, a year wait is not so bad here, but there are other jurisdictions that are much better, even within Canada. Autism funding varies by province.
ReplyDeleteWe happen to be the first family in my district ( they decided it was to expensive, the last hold out) to get funding for aba. Yet there is only one center that does diagnosis for the whole country. So here like elsewhere it is immersed in politics.
ReplyDeleteThat is EXCELLENT news!!! We are one of those families in Ontario where the wait is closer to 3 years. We were on the list for a year and at the eligibility assessment were told that our child is too high functioning to qualify (which we all know is nonsense because his developmental trajectory to date has been phenomenal with the private aba we're providing). So now we have no public services to look forward to, no financial relief in sight. It sucks, but the silver lining is that we never thought our child would be where he is today so we do feel blessed.
ReplyDeleteI truly hope that your daughter gets the benefit of staying in the provincial aba program and isn't prematurely discharged like many other kids. She will be receiving intense therapy at the most opportune time - 2.5 years old! Early Intervention actually being provided EARLY, now that's something to celebrate indeed :-)
I am ticked off about a lot of things, but you guys getting money to fund your efforts and to help your family, is for sure not one of them!
ReplyDeleteLike above commenter, getting it is half the battle, the rest of it is about keeping it!
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!! And I hope its the best thing that happens to Alanna.
That is fabulous news! Congratulations. We are still on the wait list at TVCC for direct service. Hopefully we won't have to wait 2-3 years. It has been about 6 months on the official "IBI wait list" now.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if anyone can tell me if we continue private IBI until our daughters Erin Oaks assesment and then further waitlist is the money spent eligable for a tax deduction for income tax 2010 or are we on our own for the entire $ until the Erin Oaks assesment and limited to what they recommend for therapy $ ?
ReplyDeleteOur daughter was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism the end of March, she is now 4 1/2 years old.
Bill, Cambridge, ON
Any help appreciated billbear@rogers.com