POLICY & CONSULTATION
An important role for Autism Victoria is to advocate on behalf of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, their families and carers, and the agencies that provide specialist Autism Spectrum Disorder services. We advocate for change to service and funding models and programmes, government regulation and legislation.
This is called systemic advocacy. It involves a number of processes, including development of policies, preparation of submissions and consultation with stakeholders.
Some key examples of systemic advocacy are our priorities document to the Victorian State Government in the lead up to the Nov 2006 state election, submission for the review of the Victorian Disability Legislation (August 2003), and subsequent response to the Exposure Draft of the Disability Bill (February 2006), and our comments on the Department of Education Better Services Better Outcomes Discussion Paper (January
2002). These documents have been posted to our website and can be downloaded.
Autism Victoria Professional Panel Position Papers
Early Childhood Autism Services
There is currently a great deal of discussion nationally and internationally about how may hours of 'treatment/services' per week constitutes an effective service for young children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autism Victoria contributes at both state and national level to discussions groups and working parties which are seeking to extend the current low intensity of services available.
We support the recommendations made in the Roberts/Prior 2006 document Early Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Guidelines for Best Practice. This review of 'The research to identify the most effective models of practice in early intervention of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders' was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
Extract from page 3 of this review - Number of hours of treatment per week
To be successful EI needs to be extensive and intensive. A minimum of 20 hours a week over two or more years is essential for young children to make major gains.
Parliamentary Inquiry into Better Support for Carers
A Federal Parliamentary Inquiry is looking into Support for Carers of people with chronic illness, disability or frailty. For the outcome of the the inquiry go to the House of Representatives Committee website.
The Autism State Plan was announced by the Victorian State Government in the 2006 election policy Addressing disadvantage that stated the government will develop an Autism State Plan in partnership with Autism Victoria, to build new and better approaches across government for meeting the growing and complex needs of people with autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
On Thursday the 21st of May, 2009 the eagerly anticipated launch of the Autism State Plan took place at Alpha Autism.
The Minister for Mental Health, Community Services and Senior Victorians, the Honorable Lisa Neville spoke at length about the development of the plan and how the plan will drive the development of services for the next 10 years. The Minister also acknowledged the work of the Autism Victoria working party and in particular the efforts of Meredith Ward.
The Ministers speech was followed by an inspiration talk from Daniel Giles, a young man who has an Autism Spectrum Disorder but has refused to let this stop him from achieving great things in his life.
After Daniel had spoken the Deputy Chair of Autism Victoria, Ms Michele Carson, spoke on behalf of Autism Victoria. Michele acknowledged the work of Government and thanked the Minister for a range of initiatives, including the State plan, that will benefit families and individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The final speaker was Meredith Ward who shared with the audience the journey of the State Plan and her insights into the partnership approach taken by Government and Autism Victoria. Meredith made particular note of the courage of Government to enter into a partnership. Her speech concluded with her son sharing a poem with the audience that he had written.
At the conclusion of this stage of the program the band Rudely Interrupted then entertained the audience with a number of songs.
From the Minister's speech through to Rudely Interrupted's performance the day was memorable both for the achievement of an Autism State Plan itself but also the presentations by the speakers.
Autism Victoria also wishes to acknowledge the great work done by DHS staff from the Strategic Projects Branch throughout this journey and Alpha Autism for hosting the event.
A detailed analysis of the Autism State Plan will be provided in the following week.
Please click here to download a copy of the plan
You can also visit the Autism State Plan website.
Another part of our role is to support and assist parent action groups. How to have a say has some suggestions for lobbying government and working with the media. If you wish please use the Have a Say form or email.
Consulting with our members is also very important, and we would like to thank the many members who responded to the 2006 Autism Victoria Member Survey. A report of the survey findings is in the attached pdf document.