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As communities across Canada mark Autism Awareness Month, a new free program has been launched in Fort Frances, Ont., to support children with autism and their caregivers.
The autism mental health program was launched Thursday — World Autism Awareness Day — by Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services (KRRDCFS).
The initiative is supported by the Ontario Autism Program workforce capacity fund, said Becky Andrusco, the agency’s supervisor of clinical and community services.
“We’ve helped to reduce some barriers [to help families] better navigate the system, and we’ve also introduced some new programming, including parent support, child-focused service groups and specialized mental health supports tailored for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” Andrusco said.
About 1 in 50 — or two per cent of Canadian children — are diagnosed with ASD, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The federal agency defines ASD as “a neurodevelopmental disorder that can include impairments in speech, non-verbal communication and social interactions combined with restricted and repetitive behaviours, interests or activities.”
Students at École Elsie MacGill Public School in Thunder Bay, Ont., are seen holding paper hearts during a flag raising ceremony for World Autism Awareness Day. (Nicky Shaw/CBC)
“Each person with ASD is unique, and the term ‘spectrum’ refers to the wide variation in strengths and challenges reflected among those with the disorder,” it says.
KRRDCFS has been exploring ways to improve its child and youth mental health services to better serve people with ASD, Andrusco said.
“We often saw people, and some of our own clinicians, nervous or resistant to working with people with autism spectrum disorder,” she said.
“The province itself had invested through Children’s Mental Health Ontario … significant funds to try to strengthen these core competencies for clinicians in the province of Ontario. We wanted to go a step further.”
Staff have received training in child-centred play therapy and internal family systems. They will also take part in the upcoming Safe and Sound Protocol, “a listening-based intervention designed to support emotional regulation, reduce stress and enhance social engagement by targeting the nervous system,” said Andrusco.
“We do have a large population of people on the spectrum within our districts, so we wanted to be able to offer therapeutic services as well.”
Making services more accessible
Families can self-refer to access the program or be referred internally if they’re already using other services through KRRDCFS.
The agency also works closely with community partners and has a contract with the Rainy River District School Board.
“So we have clinicians there that also can identify when somebody requires more specialized services,” said Andrusco.
The World Autism Awareness Day flag has been raised at École Elsie MacGill Public School in Thunder Bay, Ont. (Nicky Shaw/CBC)
More than 67,500 children with autism across Ontario are waiting to access funding for core clinical services through the Ontario Autism Program, according to government records obtained through a freedom of information request.
While long waitlists have created challenges for many families across the province, northwestern Ontario faces an additional hurdle.
“We don’t have a lot of services to purchase in our area,” said Andrusco.
That is another reason the agency expanded its free programming, she added.
It’s really important for kids to know that we celebrate all kinds of differences in our schools. We are inclusive environments, we welcome everybody, we teach everybody and we meet our learners where they’re at.- Lisa Adams, vice principal, École Elsie MacGill Public School
KRRDCFS is hoping to offer more ASD services at its Atikokan office soon.
“It’s important to us because we want to reflect our commitment to building a more accessible, supportive and responsive system for children and families across our communities,” said Andrusco.
Meanwhile, school boards across the region are using Autism Awareness Month as an opportunity to educate students about neurodiversity.
Lakehead Public Schools held a ceremony on Thursday to raise the World Autism Awareness Day flag at École Elsie MacGill Public School.
“It’s really important for kids to know that we celebrate all kinds of differences in our schools. We are inclusive environments, we welcome everybody, we teach everybody and we meet our learners where they’re at,” said the school’s vice principal, Lisa Adams.
“We really want to teach other kids empathy, too — to understand others, to understand that everyone learns a little bit [differently] and what might be right for some isn’t right for others.”