Dachel Media Update: Big Job in MI, FL Support Center
Mar 18, 2013, MLive.com: Lt. Gov. Brian Calley: Helping those with autism is a 'big, big job' for Michigan
Mar 18, 2013, TV8 Grand Rapids: MI Autism Spectrum Disorders State Plan
Mar 17, 2013, Florida Times-Union: Group hopes to build support center for autistic kids
"Lt. Gov. Brian Calley said Monday that Michigan has a 'big, big job' ahead of it to address the needs of state residents living with autism spectrum disorders.
"Calley, the Department of Community Health and the Michigan Autism Council discussed a broad state plan aimed at boosting autism-related services in the state. Michigan officials hope to increase access to service providers related to autism and improve coordination and use of resources that already exist.
"'This is a big, big job in front of us,' said Calley, who has a daughter with autism.
"Calley said a key will be commitment 'to making progress every day' toward meeting the needs of residents with autism.
"The plan is an early step designed to help Michigan to identify and eventually address the weak spots in its autism support system. It builds on Gov. Rick Snyder's creation last year of a state autism council and a recent state law that mandates more insurance coverage for autism.
"The plan calls for increased autism screening by primary care and early childhood providers.
"There could be more coordination among university research efforts related to autism. University faculty could help develop ways to make more autism-specific information available in education, medical and social science programs...."
Michigan
has an estimated 50,000 people with autism spectrum disorders, including 16,000
students in the public school system.
I'm left wondering if MI's Lt Gov would be doing this if his
daughter wasn't autistic. Maybe what we need to do is elect people with ASD
kids to state offices. This is maddening. They're pretending that autism
affects the same percentage across the population----which it doesn't. There's
no demand for REAL ANSWERS ON WHY MI (and every other state) is in this
situation.
Imagine if, after Pearl Harbor, all we'd done was bury the dead and repair the damage WHILE IGNORING WHO ATTACKED US! That's what we're doing here. We're dealing with the disaster called autism without ever asking where it all came from.
TV8"The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) and the Michigan Autism Council on Monday released the Michigan Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) State Plan."
Autism's not a crisis. Autism's not an epidemic among our children. Autism is nothing to worry about. I get the feeling from this coverage that it's just the government addressing special needs. It's conditioning us to accept autism as a part of life. There's no focus on children, as if it affects everyone the same. I marvel at this kind of reporting. I sincerely hope the government and the media have a plan for conditioning us to WILLINGLY PAY FOR ALL THE AUTISM. I posted comments.
There's the usual disclaimer denying that vaccines are linked to autism, but there's also a message of hope for parents. (Comments weren't allow on the story.)
Unlike most pediatricians out there, Julie Buckley, MD, is doing something to help children with autism. I wrote about Dr. Buckley two years ago: Dr. Julie Buckley On Treating Underlying Medical Conditions of Autism
Shots in the Dark, is a film about vaccine injury in multiple countries. It showed, among other things, parents with autistic children who told their personal stories.
I listened to a doctor featured on the video, Dr. Julie Buckley, pediatrician, Ponte Vedra, FL. In a scene showing several swimming children, Dr. Buckley described what has happened to the children we see at play. She tells us, "The children who are here, their parents will tell you, were definitely injured by vaccines. They were fine and then they were gone."
She voices apparent frustration. "So, if I have parents screaming and I have science confirming, that there's a problem with exposure to mercury, and there's a problem with exposure aluminum, and there's a problem when you take a broken immune system and give it three live viruses on the same day, then why don't we want to fix that?"
Dr. Buckley gestures toward the swimming pool and says, "This is ridiculous that there are this many children in one little town, in one little pool, all of whom have the same story.
I recently moved to Wisconsin, but my formerly severely autistic son was born in Michigan where I too was born and raised. My husband sent me the link about Michigan's effort to address the needs of individuals with autism. Here is the response I sent him (disclaimer: includes an analogy, not literal medical condition, to get my point across):
I was on an earlier "governor-appointed board" for eighteen months when I was in Michigan. Extremely slow moving and narrow in scope. They will ONLY look at "scientifically- or medically-backed" interventions from the mainstream. They looked mainly at education and behavior interventions, nothing biomedical. They wanted to give the problem a crutch, not fix it at its source. If I spoke of methylcobalamin injections that target the language center of the brain, everyone went dead silent or let out agonized moans. If I spoke of a gluten free, casein free diet, everyone went up in arms. I was always the idiot in the barrel, despite the fact that it was my son who was actually recovering wonderfully in comparison to anyone else's. It was very frustrating. In the end, the ONLY thing our committee reccommended to the governor was ABA.
I think these state programs will be good in that they focus on things like extended education, employment, housing, etc., which are needed, but what they are really are just "wheelchairs". There are always people willing to make or provide wheelchairs for the people who are unable to walk, but no one wants to look at what is causing them to be unable to walk, or implement meaningful interventions to heal them so they can walk again on their own, no longer having the need for a wheelchair. THAT would step on the toes of the rich and powerful and we certainly can't go THERE for our kids. Sigh......
Joanne Antonetti-Beard
Posted by: Jo Bea | March 20, 2013 at 06:29 PM