Parents’ struggle with autistic son prompts calls for national strategy

A heart-rending case involving a Halifax-area boy has triggered new calls for a national strategy to help families with children who can become violently aggressive because of severe autism.

The case of nine-year-old Callum Sutherland illustrates what happens when families can’t get crisis assistance, according to Autism Canada and the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance.

Carly Sutherland took the rare step last week of holding a news conference to plea for help with her sometimes violent son, who is due to be fully released from a confined hospital unit on Thursday.

Sutherland told reporters her son, and her family, are frightened by how they will cope.

Cynthia Carroll, the chairwoman of the alliance, said families across Canada are reporting more severe cases of aggressive behaviour, and a lack of help.

“As we continue to work in silos across the provinces and territories, the risk increases and everybody holds their breath that for each case that hits the media that it’s not a fatal case,” Carroll said.

Carroll said the Sutherland case is one among many showing the need for a national strategy, and she asks why the federal Liberal government hasn’t adequately responded to the Senate’s call last spring for a federal plan.

The upper chamber also issued a report titled “Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis,” calling for more assistance a decade ago.

Carroll said the goal is to hold a first ministers’ conference, agree on the key needs, and get funding.

Both national groups say some health regions within provinces have behavioural therapies that are available to older children, but there are generally long waiting lists and shortages of trained therapists across the country.