11-02-2005, 04:17 PM
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release. October 27, 2005.
Families Rally for Autism Treatment in Medicare
Martin’s Government Still AWOL on Autism Epidemic
Ottawa, ON — On Thursday, November 17, from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM, families of children with autism will gather on Parliament Hill - and other cities across Canada - to mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision in the Auton case and call upon the federal government to develop a National Autism Strategy.
One year after the fateful ruling against the rights of children with autism to be included in Medicare for their core health treatment need, the federal government remains AWOL, in the face of an unprecedented autism epidemic. One in every 200 children born this year will be diagnosed with this devastating neurological disorder. Yet, the federal government stubbornly refuses to address the shameful reality that Canadian children with autism are excluded in every province from Medicare for their physician-prescribed, medically necessary treatment.
Despite two British Columbia court rulings that ordered the government to fund autism treatment, and court findings that the lack of publicly funded autism treatment is a discriminatory violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the SCC’s November 2004 decision in the Auton case revealed the weaknesses of the “equality” provisions in the Charter and the “universality” provisions in the Canada Health Act. Regrettably, both texts are empty promises for children with autism.
Families of children with autism are calling upon the federal government to demonstrate strong health care leadership by developing a National Autism Strategy that:
1) Expands Medicare to cover autism treatment for every child diagnosed with autism;
2) Provides timely diagnoses, so no child waits more than two weeks for diagnosis;
3) Creates graduate level programs for autism treatment professionals in this vital field so Canadians will not have to relocate to the U.S. for training.
Simultaneous rallies will be held across Canada on November 17 including Halifax, Vancouver and Nanaimo. These rallies are supported by Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT) of B.C., Ontario, and Nova Scotia and the Autism Society of B.C.
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For more information, contact:
Andrew Kavchak (Ottawa) H: (613) 731-7175; W: (613) 954-3063
Laurel Gibbons (Ottawa) H: (613) 821-9038; C: (613) 816-4225
Jean Lewis (Vancouver) H: (604) 925-4401; C: (604) 290-5737
Jim Young (Halifax) H: (902) 455-0362; C: (902) 483-2046
Diane Therriault (Nanaimo) H: (250) 468-9864; C: (250) 751-9328
http://www.Canada Autism.com
Attachment: Autism Fact Sheet
AUTISM FACT SHEET
• Autism is one of five Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) described under the diagnostic category of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
• Autism is a neurological disorder that results in a developmental disability and affects the victim’s ability to communicate and socially interact. It also affects their behaviour, which is often repetitive and limited to routines. Autism changes the way the brain processes information and can affect all aspects of a person’s development.
• Autism is the most common neurological disorder, affecting children and approximately 1 in every 200 children born in Canada will be diagnosed with an ASD.
• The cause and cure of autism are not known. However, since the 1980s, the medical community has known that the application of Intensive Behaviour Intervention (IBI) therapy treatment based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) can result in as many as 48% of children receiving this treatment losing their diagnosis while the remainder make great progress towards becoming independent.
• No province in Canada offers IBI/ABA autism treatment under Medicare. Some provinces offer half-baked programs under their Departments of Social Services as if autism was merely a social problem rather than a medical condition.
• A number of families initiated a lawsuit in British Columbia in 1998, seeking a court order stating that not providing publicly funded, medically necessary autism treatment constitutes discrimination and a violation of the Charter’s section 15 equality provisions. At the BC Supreme Court the families won and the government was ordered to pay for autism treatment. The NDP government at the time, with Ujjal Dosanjh as Attorney-General, appealed the decision. At the BC Court of Appeal the families won again. However, this time, the Liberal government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). The SCC heard the Auton appeal on June 8, 2004. The provincial governments across Canada and the federal government each intervened against the children with autism. On November 19, 2004, the SCC issued its unanimous decision in which it overturned the BC courts and stated that it was not discrimination to not provide autism treatment in Medicare because it was not prescribed in any health-related statute. This decision was a tremendous blow to the autism community across Canada and demonstrates the severe weakness of the equality provision of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the limitation of the concept of “universality” of Medicare – health care for everyone -- that is supposed to be the foundation of the Canada Health Act.
• On December 22, 2004, an Ipsos-Reid public opinion poll revealed that 84% of Canadians support the extension of Medicare to cover autism treatment.
• A national autism treatment petition calling on the federal government to amend the Canada Health Act to include autism treatment in Medicare has been tabled in the Canadian Parliament over 60 times since the Auton decision and Canadians across the country continue to access the petition at http://www.Canada Autism.com and to forward signed copies to their MPs.
• Provincial governments continue to treat autism as something that can be ignored. During the 2003 provincial election in Ontario, the then leader of the opposition, Dalton McGuinty, wrote a letter to a mother of an autistic child promising to remove the age six cut-off from treatment under the Ontario Preschool Autism Program, which he called discriminatory. Not only did Premier McGuinty not fulfill his election promise, he kept litigating the ongoing Deskin/Wynberg case. The Ontario Superior Court issued a decision on Friday, April 1, 2005, stating that the age six cut-off was discriminatory and ordered the government to provide treatment beyond age six. On Monday, April 4, 2005 the McGuinty government announced an appeal of the decision.
• The autism community is calling on the federal government to develop a National Autism Strategy to deal with the current crisis. The federal government should demonstrate leadership and use its ownership of the Canada Health Act, its budget surplus, its history of precedents and negotiated health accords, etc… to negotiate with the provinces the inclusion of autism treatment in Medicare from coast to coast.
http://www.Canada Autism.com
For Immediate Release. October 27, 2005.
Families Rally for Autism Treatment in Medicare
Martin’s Government Still AWOL on Autism Epidemic
Ottawa, ON — On Thursday, November 17, from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM, families of children with autism will gather on Parliament Hill - and other cities across Canada - to mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision in the Auton case and call upon the federal government to develop a National Autism Strategy.
One year after the fateful ruling against the rights of children with autism to be included in Medicare for their core health treatment need, the federal government remains AWOL, in the face of an unprecedented autism epidemic. One in every 200 children born this year will be diagnosed with this devastating neurological disorder. Yet, the federal government stubbornly refuses to address the shameful reality that Canadian children with autism are excluded in every province from Medicare for their physician-prescribed, medically necessary treatment.
Despite two British Columbia court rulings that ordered the government to fund autism treatment, and court findings that the lack of publicly funded autism treatment is a discriminatory violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the SCC’s November 2004 decision in the Auton case revealed the weaknesses of the “equality” provisions in the Charter and the “universality” provisions in the Canada Health Act. Regrettably, both texts are empty promises for children with autism.
Families of children with autism are calling upon the federal government to demonstrate strong health care leadership by developing a National Autism Strategy that:
1) Expands Medicare to cover autism treatment for every child diagnosed with autism;
2) Provides timely diagnoses, so no child waits more than two weeks for diagnosis;
3) Creates graduate level programs for autism treatment professionals in this vital field so Canadians will not have to relocate to the U.S. for training.
Simultaneous rallies will be held across Canada on November 17 including Halifax, Vancouver and Nanaimo. These rallies are supported by Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT) of B.C., Ontario, and Nova Scotia and the Autism Society of B.C.
- 30 -
For more information, contact:
Andrew Kavchak (Ottawa) H: (613) 731-7175; W: (613) 954-3063
Laurel Gibbons (Ottawa) H: (613) 821-9038; C: (613) 816-4225
Jean Lewis (Vancouver) H: (604) 925-4401; C: (604) 290-5737
Jim Young (Halifax) H: (902) 455-0362; C: (902) 483-2046
Diane Therriault (Nanaimo) H: (250) 468-9864; C: (250) 751-9328
http://www.Canada Autism.com
Attachment: Autism Fact Sheet
AUTISM FACT SHEET
• Autism is one of five Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) described under the diagnostic category of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).
• Autism is a neurological disorder that results in a developmental disability and affects the victim’s ability to communicate and socially interact. It also affects their behaviour, which is often repetitive and limited to routines. Autism changes the way the brain processes information and can affect all aspects of a person’s development.
• Autism is the most common neurological disorder, affecting children and approximately 1 in every 200 children born in Canada will be diagnosed with an ASD.
• The cause and cure of autism are not known. However, since the 1980s, the medical community has known that the application of Intensive Behaviour Intervention (IBI) therapy treatment based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) can result in as many as 48% of children receiving this treatment losing their diagnosis while the remainder make great progress towards becoming independent.
• No province in Canada offers IBI/ABA autism treatment under Medicare. Some provinces offer half-baked programs under their Departments of Social Services as if autism was merely a social problem rather than a medical condition.
• A number of families initiated a lawsuit in British Columbia in 1998, seeking a court order stating that not providing publicly funded, medically necessary autism treatment constitutes discrimination and a violation of the Charter’s section 15 equality provisions. At the BC Supreme Court the families won and the government was ordered to pay for autism treatment. The NDP government at the time, with Ujjal Dosanjh as Attorney-General, appealed the decision. At the BC Court of Appeal the families won again. However, this time, the Liberal government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). The SCC heard the Auton appeal on June 8, 2004. The provincial governments across Canada and the federal government each intervened against the children with autism. On November 19, 2004, the SCC issued its unanimous decision in which it overturned the BC courts and stated that it was not discrimination to not provide autism treatment in Medicare because it was not prescribed in any health-related statute. This decision was a tremendous blow to the autism community across Canada and demonstrates the severe weakness of the equality provision of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the limitation of the concept of “universality” of Medicare – health care for everyone -- that is supposed to be the foundation of the Canada Health Act.
• On December 22, 2004, an Ipsos-Reid public opinion poll revealed that 84% of Canadians support the extension of Medicare to cover autism treatment.
• A national autism treatment petition calling on the federal government to amend the Canada Health Act to include autism treatment in Medicare has been tabled in the Canadian Parliament over 60 times since the Auton decision and Canadians across the country continue to access the petition at http://www.Canada Autism.com and to forward signed copies to their MPs.
• Provincial governments continue to treat autism as something that can be ignored. During the 2003 provincial election in Ontario, the then leader of the opposition, Dalton McGuinty, wrote a letter to a mother of an autistic child promising to remove the age six cut-off from treatment under the Ontario Preschool Autism Program, which he called discriminatory. Not only did Premier McGuinty not fulfill his election promise, he kept litigating the ongoing Deskin/Wynberg case. The Ontario Superior Court issued a decision on Friday, April 1, 2005, stating that the age six cut-off was discriminatory and ordered the government to provide treatment beyond age six. On Monday, April 4, 2005 the McGuinty government announced an appeal of the decision.
• The autism community is calling on the federal government to develop a National Autism Strategy to deal with the current crisis. The federal government should demonstrate leadership and use its ownership of the Canada Health Act, its budget surplus, its history of precedents and negotiated health accords, etc… to negotiate with the provinces the inclusion of autism treatment in Medicare from coast to coast.
http://www.Canada Autism.com