Money

So, if you live in Canada, you will understand what I am talking about when I talk about autism funding.

So if your child has been diagnosed with autism, the government gives you a one-time funding which you can use for various different types of therapies or items that you may need to purchase for your child that enhance their growth and development.  Sounds good right?

Well, of course money is always good to have especially when you are dealing with anyone on the spectrum, but there are stipulations with this money — many, many stipulations and I guess this blog is to just vent about these hopefully not in a destructive way, but just as information.

So you have a child with autism, and you have a child who is typical. So you have neuro diverse and neuro typical. You have expenses of course for all children, that’s a given. But I really think that it’s unimaginable for someone without a special needs child to really, truly understand the cost of raising them.

Just to put into some practical terms for you. So you child wants to do martial arts, but being around a lot of people sets them off and they can’t focus. So now you have to register for a private class instead of a group class. You want your child to learn the skill, but your options are very limited. So you pay about 4 times the amount of money so that they can go to this class.

Your child on the spectrum usually has some kind of issues with food – whether or not they are allergies or not so you have to spend more money on specialty products. We have one that doesn’t eat gluten, soy, dairy, corn or processed sugar. Any items that you purchase in these categories are normally at least double the amount.

Your child may require assistive equipment or sensory things just to get through the day. So you could be looking at special computer, headphones for sure, weighted blankets, sensory socks – the list goes on and on.

You may need special supplements as we do for biomedical treatments. Our sons takes probably at least 20 pills a day just to keep him healthy. Are these covered by our drug plan? No, so all of it is out of pocket.

Other sensory sensitivities may be clothing or special shoes or detox items like a special footbath that we use on a regular basis. You may have to save up for these items as the footbath we purchased was over $3,000.00.

Other household things that are pure like cleaning products, soaps, toothpaste,shampoo etc.

I cannot list everything here, but none of these items is a “luxury.” They are all part of your daily life and they are needed.

So the government gives you money and for younger children who really need the therapies like ABA, it is extremely helpful and beneficial.

All the parents with children on the spectrum have a lot to deal with just to get through the day and then with the government you are trying to submit expenses that will help your child but some of the ones that should be allowed aren’t and to make it even worse, it’s hard to get them to put things in writing. I am part of a Facebook group and every day there is a post about someone who received funds but has to make many phone calls to find out if what they are purchasing is covered. You see, the list has a grey area open for interpretation so it’s not simple.

I had a phone call yesterday (they left a message) and I wanted to know about a particular sensory item. Even though in my email, I asked them to respond in writing they called which means later if you don’t have it in writing they could turn around and not cover that item.

I mean do they think we have nothing else to do? These are parents who barely get any time to themselves to begin with and now they have to do more running around before they can even purchase certain items to help their child.

Anyway, I am grateful for any help that we get, I just think it is so wrong to go after a very vulnerable population of people in this way. Just my opiinion.

If you don’t live in Canada, you are probably wondering, why I am complaining, right?