The Ford government says it will look at providing more needs-based help for children with autism — while eliminating means-testing for services — bowing to intense pressure from families over controversial changes it made last month.Families will also now be able to renew current behavioural therapy services when they expire, for an additional six months, to help adjust to provincial changes to the Ontario Autism Program.“Parents were right when they said that autism is a spectrum and that there are different needs for children on the spectrum,” Children, Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod said Thursday. “I’ll take their input for the next several months to assess how we better support those with more complex needs and provide additional sources of support for them.”Laura Kirby-McIntosh, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition — a group that has led opposition to the government’s changes — said Thursday’s tweaks, including the six-month reprieve, mean “some members of my community are going to be able to breathe today, and maybe sleep.”However, she said the government needs to create a needs-based funding model, and she “still has concerns about age discrimination, and the amount of funding” based on age.Milton mother Maria Garito, whose son Max, 4, started government-funded therapy two weeks ago after waiting for more than two years, was thrilled to learn his long awaited support would continue for another six months.“It’s a positive step in the right direction,” she said. “I know not everyone will be happy. But I am staying positive that better things are yet to come.”MacLeod said the province’s focus remains on clearing the lengthy wait list for services, but the new “enhancements” are based largely on suggestions from her parliamentary assistant MPP Amy Fee — a mother of two children with autism & ...
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