thumb-2021-01-030
thumb-2021-01-030 This article is more than 2 years old
News

Doug Ford’s New Autism Program May Take Key Decisions Out of the Hands of Medical Experts, Advocates Warn

Ford government plans to put funding decisions in the hands of new ‘Care Coordinators‘ who will receive ‘one day of training‘

Advocates are warning that the Ontario government’s latest plan for managing support services for autistic children could take key decisions over care and funding out of the hands of medical professionals and parents.

In December 2020, Ford’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services released guidelines for independent agencies looking to secure contracts to run Ontario’s autism program, including managing waitlists, funding allocations and a “needs-based assessment process.”

It says families accessing the program “will participate in the Determination of Needs process conducted by an OAP Care Coordinator.” This process, the document explains, will assess the child’s strengths, weaknesses and needs, “to determine a child’s profile of support need and associated OAP funding allocation.”

The document adds: “Once a child / youth’s profile of support need is determined by their OAP Care Coordinator, families will receive a corresponding funding allocation that can be used to purchase eligible core clinical services.”

Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services

While the “determination of needs” will be “clinically informed,” the document explicitly states medical professionals will not make final decisions:

“The determination of needs process is separate and distinct from the clinician-based assessment that would be completed by a clinician as a first step of core clinical service provision.”

Ontario Autism Coalition president Laura Kirby-McIntosh, who was a member of the government’s 2019 advisory panel, told PressProgress the Ford government’s guidelines run contrary to the panel’s recommendations.

If we’re doing a needs-based system and clinicians determine need, what the hell are these public servants doing?” Kirby-McIntosh asked.

While Kirby-McIntosh said the panel agreed a “care coordinator” may be useful in helping families navigate the system, the intention was for medical experts to make decisions about what autistic children need.

“The ministry took a very hardline position that in order the manage the system it needed to predict the level of need for forecasting purposes, their churn of kids moving in and out of the system,” Kirby-McIntosh explained.

“We agreed to the creation of a Care Coordinator whose job would be to forecast needs, to look at any assessments that are already in place, using a tool that must be developed by clinicians to forecast the needs of that kid.”

Kirby-McIntosh also noted the document says these care providers will be responsible for the “lead determination” of children’s needs.

It also offers funding for an “estimated one day training” for Care Coordinators.

Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services

Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment from PressProgress.

The Ford government’s autism program has been a cause of controversy for some time. After promising to get kids more support more quickly, the previous Social Services Minister changed the existing system of ongoing support to a staged lump sum that left some families digging out of pocket for support that could cost up to $80,000 per year.

That change was soon scrapped, but not before Premier Ford was loudly booed at the Special Olympics.

 

Our journalism is powered by readers like you.

We’re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.

Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don’t get the attention they deserve from Canada’s big corporate media outlets.

 

Donate
PressProgress
PressProgress is an award-winning non-profit news organization focused on uncovering and unpacking the news through original investigative and explanatory journalism.

Most Shared

thumb-2023-03-08-BC-workers-recovery News

Ontario Budget 2023: Doug Ford Pulled a Sneaky Move to Quietly Cut Education

Related Stories

News

BC Workers are Being Forced Into Mandatory Drug Testing and Private ‘Recovery’ Programs

View the post
News

Budget 2023: Dental Care Plan Will Cover Millions More Uninsured Canadians Than Originally Estimated

View the post
News

Conservative Party Casts Doubt on Qualifications of Women Cabinet Ministers

View the post

Explainers

Human rights & inclusion

Amira Elghawaby

Here’s The Problem With Hoping Corporations Will Be Socially and Environmentally Responsible On Their Own

View the post
Politics & strategy

Jeremy Appel

The battle of the PACs in Calgary’s municipal election

View the post
Politics & strategy

Jeremy Appel

27 Different Candidates are Vying to be Calgary’s Mayor. Here Are the Biggest Issues at Stake.

View the post
Newspapers always have a business section – why not a labour section? We’ve launched a free newsletter covering labour issues in Canada.
Get Canadian Labour News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers.
We’ve launched a free newsletter covering labour issues in Canada.
Get Canadian Labour News You Won't Find in Corporate Newspapers