Mary Polak's Autism Funding Slashing - Reviews

I was curious what others thought about this and it was amazing to see the poor reviews Mary is getting on this decision. Not only was it a bad call but she did it without consulting the community and then backtracked on her reasons to do it. Well here are other reviews:

Slashing support for children is no way to balance budgets: HSA
http://www.surrey.com/bc/?p=4732
VANCOUVER, Sept. 23 CNW –

Government spin won’t help autistic children and their families,” HSA President Reid Johnson said today in response to a massive government cut in support for autistic children across British Columbia.

Autism Funding Cuts
http://anotherrhyme.blogspot.com/2009/09/autism-funding-cuts.html

Do you live with a child with Autism? Have you had a child at the age of four sit in fits of rage lashing out at you because they cannot explain to you verbally what it is that is bothering them or because you tried to hold their hand? Have you then sat with that same child a year later who has had sessions with speech therapists, interventionists, and behavioural analysts and has begun to communicate either verbally or with picture cards and can handle physical contact? Having had a summer of working with children with ASD through Recreation Integration Victoria, kids who had been in the EIBI programs and those that had not, it's amazing to see the difference those intervention sessions provide to both the child and their families.

Autism Funding Debate Rages on
http://autismsymptoms1.net/2009/09/27/autism-funding-debate-rages-on/

THIS IS GOING TO COST A LOT OF MONEY IN THE FUTURE. AND NOT JUST THIRTY, FORTY, FIFTY YEARS DOWN THE ROAD WHEN THIS GOVERNMENT’S LONG GONE. WE’RE TALKING TWO OR THREE YEARS WHEN THESE KIDS GO TO SCHOOL, NOT PREPARED, NEEDING MORE SUPPORT, MORE SPECIAL [EDUCATION], MORE TEACHER TIME

Autism cut decision was made based on a 2003 program review
http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2009/09/autism-cut-decision-was-made-based-on.html

Children's Minister Mary Polak's budget cuts include elimination of an intensive early intervention prorgam for autistic pre-schoolers.
Defending the decision last week, Polak offered a number of reasons for killing the program.
The most convincing was that despite the much higher cost to help the children, the program delivered no better results than alternatives costing less than one-third the amount per child.
"We have to look at the outcomes and when it comes to what was occurring, . . . we were not seeing any appreciable improvements in the outcomes for those kids," she said.
So what was that based on?
According to the ministry, Polak was referring to a review done in 2003, when the program was in its first full year.
The report on the ministry website is a Powerpoint summary of the research presented in 2005.
"The evaluation project was initiated at the very beginning of the EIBI and IEII programs," it notes. "So, the results only apply to the children and families who were initially involved in these programs, which have developed considerably since the evaluation was completed. Results may be different if the evaluation was conducted today."
And by today, the review's authors were referring to 2005.
It's a lame - even phony - justification for making a policy decision affecting children facing great challenges.
And it's misleading for Polak to suggest the ministry actually had a sound basis for assessing the program's effectiveness before killing it.

How low can Gordon Campbell go?
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-low-can-gordon-campbell-go.html

And the assault on the autistic in this province has continued,I heard rumours of more cuts in that area and they were announced today,and I have to say that for the first time in my life I feel ashamed to live in this province.

Autism Funding in BC: There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people
http://housdenadoption.blogspot.com/2009/09/autism-funding-in-bc-there-is-nothing.html

As many people have heard, autism funding in BC has been cut.
This was announced the same week that the provincial government held a $500,000.00 pre-olympic event for the Premier, his cabinet, friends and family.
Sadly, these types of events may serve to illustrate the priorities of the BC government.

These were some of the more details blog posts but there are dozens of sites and angry comment postings about Mary's latest tweaks.