Mom wants autistic son home
Thorold teenager continues to languish in hospital psych ward
Christie Curran wants her son, Parker, back.
“I would love nothing more than to scoop him up right now and bring him home,” she said.
But for now, the Thorold resident fears her 19-year-old son with severe autism will have to remain where he has been for the past seven months, as a patient in the psychiatric ward at the St. Catharines hospital.
Parker was three years old when he was diagnosed with the autism that delayed his development.
“Autism is always like a rollercoaster. It’s up and down all the time,” she said. “Things were OK for a long time, but when he turned 17 it got extremely difficult. His behaviour started getting worse — the aggression.”
When the pandemic hit and disrupted Parker’s routine, she said, his aggressive outbursts became unmanageable.
“COVID-19 really did him in.
It just broke him. His whole world fell apart,” she said. “It’s not doing it out of spite, or hatefulness that he wants to hurt you. It’s just that when he gets into those rages, he doesn’t see anything.”
When it happens, Curran said, she’s more concerned about her son’s safety than her own.
But because Parker is over 18 years old, she said childhood supports the family relied on as he was growing up no longer apply. And, she said, the supports available for adults with autism are woefully inadequate.
Unable to safely care for him at home, Curran said there has been nowhere else safe for him but in the care of the hospital’s psychiatric ward.
She is impressed with the care and professionalism of hospital staff looking after Parker.
“He has been so lucky to get the great team of nurses that he has there,” she said, describing the staff as “absolutely amazing.”
Still, she said, he needs to be in a facility that specializes in adults with autism, where he can get the help he needs.
“His whole life, I’ve done everything for him — therapy and programs and camps. Now I’m
at the point where I feel like I failed him. It’s the worst feeling in the world,” she said.
Curran said she has been working with a support co-ordinator from the Southern Network of Specialized Care, who has been doing an “amazing” job advocating for the family and providing weekly updates to the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.
“There’s only so much they can do,” Curran said.
Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch, who has also been advocating for the family, said he has asked the ministry to transfer Parker to an appropriate care setting. Burch said he was told there are no group homes spaces available.
He also wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford on behalf of the family on Oct. 13. His office is still awaiting a response.
Curran said she did receive a phone call from a ministry representative following Burch’s letter, but it didn’t give her much hope.
“It was just to tell me, ‘Yeah he’s a priority, he’s on the list.’ That was months ago, and nothing.”
In an email, Developmental Services Ontario Hamilton-niagara Region office executive director Lea Pollard said the organization feels “deeply for individuals and families who must wait for services and supports, especially when their situations are challenging or urgent.”
“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic adds additional complexity to already challenging situations.”
Pollard said the need for residential services for people with developmental disabilities remains high in Ontario, “and the demand outstrips the available capacity.” That leaves people to wait until space becomes available through a vacancy or expanded capacity as a result of provincial investment.
“Residential vacancies do not arise frequently. When a vacancy arises, agencies declare them to their local Developmental Services Ontario (DSO) organization,” she said.
For people with urgent needs, Pollard said, the organization has service providers to “develop service options within existing and available resources.”
However, she said, those efforts “are limited by what is available.”
Meanwhile, the situation has taken a financial toll on Curran’s family.
They continue to spend hundreds of dollars each week out of pocket for additional caregivers for Parker. His family launched a gofundme.com campaign that has brought in $4,580 so far to help Curran cover the costs associated with Parker’s care.
An online petition she started at change.org has garnered more than 1,325 signatures.
Curran said she and her husband visit Parker almost daily at the hospital, when possible, bringing him home-cooked food and spending time with him.
During those visits, she said, her son asks “every single time, ‘Going home, mom?’”
“I don’t know what to say to him,” Curran said.
“He needs to get back to that. With the proper behaviour therapy and support, I know he will.”