autism and the ACT's early childhood strategy

To:
Subject:	autism and the ACT's early childhood strategy
Date:	Wed, 21 Sep 2022 11:28:27 +1000
From:	Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>

Government called to improve access to autism diagnosis

THE Canberra Liberals are calling for the ACT Government to improve access to public autism assessments.

According to the Liberals, assessments are currently only available to Canberra children who have been referred before the age of 12, whereas other jurisdictions provide free or subsidised public assessments up to the age of 16, 18 or even older.

what happens when politicians fail to answer questions?

Did you wonder what happens when a politician or its staff thinks they should just not answer difficult questions? Here is SOfASD's response.

letter: questions about support in the ACT

SOfASD pointed out some issues with supports for autistic people and their families in the ACT.

You can download the letter with its questions with the link below.

What about autistic Ken Behrans?

Once again, the ACT Government has failed autistic people in the ACT. They created a secret "disability health strategy" without mentioning autism.

Late last week, SOfASD's chair, who happens to also be A4's Convenor, was invited to a disability health "roundtable" and provided with a secret strategy paper. The only mention of autism in the 83 page paper is in a quote from a European document that suggests autism is a sub-diagnosis of intellectual disability. Autism is not mentioned at all in the Australian (or ACT) context.

ACT missing health and disability supports for autistic people

Subject:	ACT missing health and disability supports for autistic people
Date:	Thu, 1 Jul 2021 10:25:10 +1000
From:	Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>
Reply-To:	chair@sofasd.org.au

ACT's dysfunctional support for autistic people

like a stop sign but says "No. Wrong door."

Date:	Fri, 11 Jun 2021 10:48:19 +1000
From:	Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>
Organisation:	Speaking Out for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory
To:	barr@act.gov.au, Andrew Barr <info@actlabor.org.au>
CC:	Sara Stanley <sara@adacas.org.au>, Ms Emma Davidson MLA <davidson@act.gov.au>, gentleman@act.gov.au, Alicia.Payne.MP@aph.gov.au, Rachel Stephen-Smith <rachel@rachelstephensmith.org>, Craig Shannon (PWDACT) <unity2600@gmail.com>, actcoss@actcoss.org.au, info@advocacyforinclusion.org

Dear Chief Minister

I write to you as a systemic advocate for autistic people. Systemically, the ACT Government's former "no wrong door" policy has become a "no right door" policy. Note: the "no wrong door" policy was missing its punctuation, while the "no right door" has none.The letter below asks that a person who lodged multiple complaints with the ACT Police complaints department some time ago is asked "to contact them herself" apparently to lodge another complaint about complaints not being processed. This suggested course of action is:

Letter from Minister Berry

Subject:	Re: Letter from Minister Berry
Date:	Thu, 15 Apr 2021 18:05:41 +1000
From:	Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>
Reply-To:	chair@sofasd.org.au

NDIS rejecting autistic children

Reply-To:
Subject:	NDIS rejecting autistic children
Date:	Thu, 10 Dec 2020 09:17:26 +1100
From:	Bob Buckley (SOfASD Chair) <chair@sofasd.org.au>

FoI: AFP (ACT police) training related to Autism Spectrum Disorder

The police in the ACT made various statements to our Legislative Assembly and to the media. SOfASD wanted more detail.

The first request was ...

... for any information held by the AFP showing that autism is a mental health issue, or that ACT police or other parts of the ACT Government regard autism as a mental health issue.

This response shows training material about Intellectual Disability that fails to properly represent issues relevent to autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The second request was ...

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