The Minister for Mental Health asked officials to review supports for people with intellectual disability and for autistic people in the ACT. Health officials held a secret working group on intellectual disability but subsequent Freedom of Information request revealed that officials ignored the needs of autistic people.
SOfASD contacted the ACT Health and Mental Health ministers. They said they would “get back to [us] in a couple of weeks” … but they didn’t.
The ACT Government's response so far to community concern (in relation to a letter from the community) see is completely unacceptable. An FoI revealed that ACT Health officials dropped (ignored?) Ministerial instructions to review services for autistic Canberrans. Despite contact with health and mental health ministers, there is no discernible progress since despite commitments "to get back to us in a couple of weeks".
A new autism hub in Canberra which will provide early intervention programs for up to 40 children a year has the potential to change lives and help keep families together, a father with two autistic children believes.
The $3.5 million purpose-built centre is being bankrolled by the not-for-profit John James Foundation, Canberra's largest medical charity, which uses funds from the $100 million sale of the Calvary John James Hospital and other assets in 2018 for philanthropic causes. The lease on the land for the centre in Garran was gifted by the ACT Government.
CONSTRUCTION begins this week for a $3.5 million world-class autism hub in Garran.
The sod turning ceremony for the AEIOU Garran Centre for Autism will be held tomorrow (February 26) to mark the beginning of construction for the early intervention facility supported, through capital funding, by the John James Foundation.
The centre will be the first of its kind in Canberra and will provide early intervention for about 40 children per year. It will also have the capacity for research and training.
