Helping Children with Autism

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[Sue B]

I have been ploughing through online details about the new government Helping with Autism initiative and will do a post about it on the website. In the meantime I think this is probably the best page to start if you are interested in finding out more about it:

Helping Children with Autism on the FAHCSIA site

[Janine]

This was printed in Brisbane's Child... there is Melbourne's child, Sydney's Child... it's the same magazine. The web address if you want to register is  www.webchild.com.au In this issue in the D3 section there is an interesting story about the new Autism package. It espouse that early intervention is vitally important which children with Autism and those who are able to access it generally do better when older, than those who don't.

Read below.

  D3 - Diversity, Difference & Diagnosis.

Every issue of the ‘Child' magazines has an exciting focus that we are calling D3. It came in response to overwhelming reader demand for information relating to children who find themselves outside the medical and educational mainstreams. And this encompasses quite a continuum of special needs, from giftedness, through physical and intellectual disability to behavioural disorders.

In Australia, about 18 per cent of children have a significant social and emotional problem needing professional help; a conservative 10 per cent of children struggle with learning difficulties; and a further five to eight per cent experience one of the forms of attention deficit disorder. Between five and 10 per cent of children are "gifted", depending on what definition of giftedness one subscribes to. This adds up to a lot of parents facing issues that many of us have probably never even considered.

When we decided to focus on children whose needs place them outside the norm, we immediately encountered a problem: what to call the issue? We wanted a term that would adequately represent such a wide, exceptional range. We all agreed that conventional terminology seemed to concentrate on highlighting the "special" side of things - special needs, special education, special disability - rather than reflecting the diversity of children with different needs, and the diagnostic challenges faced by their parents, teachers and doctors.

And there it was, staring us in the face - D3: diversity, difference and diagnosis. This is the framework in which we publish stories of inspiration, desperation and perspiration as monthly D3 columns - and also in our annual October D3 edition.
Please log onto www.webchild.com.au   

[Jocelyn]

I got in touch with the government to see if fragile x would be included and the child will only receive the resources if the child is diagnosed with PDD. Sue, if you want all their information I can send it to you.

Jocelyn

[Sue B]

I got in touch with the government to see if fragile x would be included and the child will only receive the resources if the child is diagnosed with PDD. Sue, if you want all their information I can send it to you.

Jocelyn

Thanks Jocelyn. I would be interested in reading the information - the website is a maze and hard to follow - bits and peices here there and everywhere.

[leonab]

I am also watching with anticipation on whether they need another ASD diagnosis as well as Fragile X.....Thanks for investigating

[leonab]

did you work out if fragile x is covered by the 20hrs a week?  Is it covered by a disabilities allowance?  Carer support days? personal care hours per week???  We really want to compare the services over here and in Australia for our kids.  We get 50 days each carer support for the year, 15 hours a week person care for the two of them combined (bathing, eating, general support for them, but have to be used weekly not accured, we also get about $40 a week each disability allowance..which is not income tested, there is another but it is means tested.  We don't get any therapy hours etc at all and early intervention is a speech therapist once a month and that si about it.

Can anyone tell me what an under 5 gets in Oz?  Thanks

[Nicj]

I am pretty sure that the FX child needs a PDD diagnosis if they dont have autism in order to qualify for the assistance.

[Sue B]

did you work out if fragile x is covered by the 20hrs a week?  Is it covered by a disabilities allowance?  Carer support days? personal care hours per week???  We really want to compare the services over here and in Australia for our kids.  We get 50 days each carer support for the year, 15 hours a week person care for the two of them combined (bathing, eating, general support for them, but have to be used weekly not accured, we also get about $40 a week each disability allowance..which is not income tested, there is another but it is means tested.  We don't get any therapy hours etc at all and early intervention is a speech therapist once a month and that si about it.

Can anyone tell me what an under 5 gets in Oz?  Thanks

Hi Leona
Because Fragile X varies as to how a child is affected there is no automatic qualification for any services just because of an FX diagnosis.  Any payments, services and help given for FX is based on assessments as to need. This includes eligibility for the new Helping with Autism Package which covers those diagnosed with a PDD. PDDs are Autism, Rett Syndrome, Child Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger Syndrome and PDD (NOS). So a child with FX must be also diagnosed with one of the PDD conditions too to be eligible.

I have written a news post about  the Helping with Autism Package and about Centrelink Payments which will be published soon. Like you we can get a Carer Allowance which is not means tested and a higher Carer Payment which is income and asset means tested. The pages I have referred you to will give you details of elibility and payment levels.  Here are details of the means testing:  Income Test and  Assets Test On top of this you can get Health Care Card.

You can check out the National Respite for Carers Program (NRCP) and other Australian Government support for carers. For specific questions you could contact a  Commonwealth Carer Resource Centre or Carers AustraliaCarers Australia

I was eligible for 4 hours per week in home respite care for Alex when he was a pre-schooler but he was probably not considered really high care and I did not ask for or need more. You would also get more because of having two young children - my other two were older when Alex had respite care. I never accessed out of home respite care for him.

[leonab]

Thanks heaps for that, will be off to read those pages now.  We often toy with the idea of moving back but the unknown scares me...haveing more family around to help would be great, but we know and are known in the system here, but thanks so much for letting me know.

[Sue B]

I have moved the last posts in this topic to Education - School Funding because the thread had moved away from the Helping with Autism Package. Please continue posting to this thread if you are discussing the package, remembering this is a public topic, open to guests as well as members.