Photo by Harold L Doherty: David Alward at the

NB Power Protest, NB Legislature March 20, 2010

Premier Alward Has Proven to be NO Friend to NB

children, youth and adults with autism

As expected when it appeared the Alward Conservatives might win the last provincial election in NB our provincial autism services are facing hard times. The rough trails that I feared were ahead of NB's children, youth and adults with autism now appear downright rocky as indicated in thisreacting to the Alward Conservative government cutting elimination of funding for Early Autism Intervention Training:

I work for a private company funded by the Department of Education to provide Applied Behavioural Analysis based intervention to preschoolers in New Brunswick who have been diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorders. These services provide a chance for preschool aged children with these developmental disorders to have the opportunity to have intense intervention prior to going to school in order to prepare them for a smooth transition to school.

Two weeks ago the Department of Education notified all 6 New Brunswick Centers providing these services that the funding would be cut as of June 1st, 2014. We no longer have funding for any staff training nor do we receive funding when a client cancels. This means, our staff will be expected to have ZERO paid sick days, they need be ok with having ZERO job stability as clients could cancel at a moments notice and they will no longer be paid during this time. They are also expected to, with no training at all, to conduct programming and follow the principles of ABA.

With this being said I believe that staff in this field will not be able to sustain their job, in turn they will have to find consistent employment elsewhere and we will no longer have qualified staff to offer these services and will not have the funds to train any new staff to replace them. As a result we are doing an injustice to ALL children in New Brunswick who have a Pervasive Development Disorders, we are taking away their chance to augment their skills and bring them to their age appropriate developmental level. We are taking away their opportunity to have qualified staff who know them well present during their school transition. And finally, we are losing educated passionate people who in turn will have to move elsewhere, taking away from New Brunswick’s already diminishing population and giving other provinces our wonderful Autism Support Workers, Lead Therapists and Clinical Supervisors.