Page 3621 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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During estimates hearings in February, Minister Berry noted that Canberra families were waiting eight to 10 months for an assessment. Families unwilling to wait this long are referred to private providers by the CDS. For families who cannot afford the private option, a public assessment is an essential service and I am grateful for that option existing, despite the wait.
In the ACT, however, a child must be referred to the CDS before the age of 12 to qualify for a public autism assessment. When I asked about this age limit in budget estimates hearings last month, Minister Berry’s response was to assure me that the goal is to detect and diagnose autism early. I get that; it is absolutely the right goal. As I noted above, early diagnosis allows for early interventions, and early interventions are very clearly linked to better life-long outcomes. Ideally, detections should be occurring before a child begins school, at the latest.
But the question remains: what happens when this goal is not achieved? In other words, what happens when autism spectrum disorder is not picked up in a child before the age of 12? I asked this question of the minister as part of the hearings and was given a simple answer:
The CDS refers children 12 years and older to private psychologists.
This is fine for families who can afford a $2,000 private assessment without any Medicare rebate and possibly with assistance from private health cover.
But what happens to families with children too old for public autism assessments who cannot afford to pay for a private assessment by a private psychologist? The answer from Autism Spectrum Australia is that sometimes these families just do the best they can without a diagnosis and the interventions that follow, with much poorer life outcomes for the person involved.
Another important question is: how many families in Canberra fall into this category? I asked the minister this question during hearings last month. In response, I was told that the ACT government has no data on this. I predicted this response and so I asked:
How many school students in Canberra above the age of 12 have provided a new diagnosis of autism to their schools?
Again, I was told that the ACT government does not track this.
In summary, the Labor-Greens government has a goal of detecting autism early, with an upper limit of age 12. This is a fine goal. Early detection can dramatically improve life outcomes. At the same time the government knows that this is not always happening because, as the minister informed me last month, the CDS is referring families with children aged 12 and above to private psychologists for assessment.
What the government does not know is how many families are in this situation or why. Therefore, the government also does not know what could be done differently to improve the early detection of autism spectrum disorder in the territory. This is a
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