Write a Letter to Your Legislator
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The Issue:
SERVICES FOR VERMONTERS WITH AUTISM: A range of services should be available to all persons on the Autism spectrum within their communities. Different combinations of supports and approaches will be needed; in all cases providers must have training and demonstrated competency in the appropriate methodologies. Capacity for services should be equitably distributed across the state and people should be equally eligible for a variety of wrap around services based upon their need. NOTE: Talking points are offered as suggestions ONLY.
Talking Points:
- There is a serious shortage of information, appropriate expertise and access to effective services in Vermont. Availability of expertise is unequally distributed across the state.
- The state’s “white paper” on autism spectrum disorders outlined a set of needs and gaps in services; the time to act upon these is now- not in several years. Vermonters with autism and their families can’t wait.
- As with other developmental disabilities, effective services for Vermonters with autism must be available across the lifespan, age-appropriate, and seamless. This implies coordination and collaboration among state departments and with our communities.
- Developmental research on children on the autism spectrum emphasizes the critical function of intensive early intervention, which is associated with long-term gains and reduced reliance upon services.
- Families frequently have to fight for appropriate early services, because the state has not provided adequate resources for this important investment.
- Children whose families cannot afford to supplement available supports may be at a significant disadvantage, in both the short- and long-term.
- Access to new children’s Home-and Community-Based waivers in Developmental Services was “suspended” by the state in 2001, resulting in a 2-tiered system of “haves and have-nots.”
- Thus, two children with very similar diagnoses, functional impairments, and family resources can have dramatically different supports and opportunities to meet their potential. Stressors upon families of children without waivers are typically greater.
- Vermonters with autism and their families must be core participants in framing and monitoring changes in this area. Many families have, by necessity, developed expertise that is in short supply in the service system.