Aspies For Freedom

A GOLD Coast couple say they want to make their seven-year-old autistic daughter a ward of the state because they cannot cope with her behaviour.

Primary school teacher Robert Lachlan and his wife Debbie from the Gold Coast suburb of Benowa said their daughter Emma suffers from autism, needs constant supervision, and the strain has pushed them to "breaking point".

"This is not a stunt and it's not an easy thing to do," Mr Lachlan told the Gold Coast Bulletin today.

"We have to give her up, she's going to become a ward of the state because we just can't go on."

Emma, who cannot speak, was getting harder to control as she grew older.

She banged walls, drew on them, ran away, did not obey instructions and needed constant supervision.

The couple have another daughter, nine-year-old Tiffany, who has a less severe case of autism but also needs constant care.

A spokesman for Disability Services Minister Warren Pitt said the department was fully aware of the case and were working with the family to help them avoid relinquishing Emma to the state.

From news.com.au

I dislike the state quite a bit, but from this little news snippet, I'd say the parents are nasty evil people too!

Maybe it's for the best.  If they can't cope, better the kid is with people who can.

I'm of 2 minds on this - on one hand it's very unfortunate that the parents prefer to give up their child to the state and I would hope they spent a lot of time before coming to this decision. Personally i'd be more inclined to stick at it no matter what if this was my child.

On the other hand we have seen parents do worse unfortunately. For those who do not know what I mean - look at the recent murders committed by parents.

I sincerely hope they do not have to go through with this and they find a way to cope with whatever stress they are dealing with.

Gareth, I agree with you.

Sad as it is, and as much as I would never like to see a parent come to this point, it is far better for the parents to recognize when they can't cope than to resort to harming their child.

What part of the world was this article taken from?  Some small pockets now actually have really lovely group homes for autistics.  Not that the child will ever understand, maybe, but ...

If the parents can't cope, the child is better off being with people who will. It's better than having them become another murder victim.

i saw this on the news,  the mother is sick, (can't remember what is wrong with her..)  so the father has to take care of all of them, and isnt getting any assistance because the waiting list for respite care is so long..

And I suppose they would have already investigated medications that would calm her down. The sad thing is, this kind of thing is not rare. I know of parents up here in North Queensland who also cannot access respite care and who are in ill health and struggling to cope.

Maybe the story is more of a cry for help and hopefully, somebody with the power to do something will put more funding into respite care so parents such as these won't feel the kind of desperation they do.