Ennis Family Proposal

By April Ennis

Today my husband Robert and I had a meeting at the Premier’s Office to discuss our family’s current situation in regards to the Preschool IBI Service and speech therapy. We met with Mr. Ian “Tex” MacDonald who is the Premier’s Executive Assistant.

Our children have not had IBI Therapy or Speech Therapy since December 2007 and critical time is quickly slipping away. Our request today was simple: please release the funding for IBI therapy to our family so we can contract a private autism consultant. The current service has been inflexible to our family’s needs on multiple levels and meetings with Government over the past two years have us running in circles.

I have to admit that this was the first meeting in a very long time that I felt positive about the meeting. I provided Mr. Tex MacDonald with a binder of documents. 1. Our current funding proposal. 2. Our January 2008 proposal to the Preschool IBI Service. 3. My submission to the Disability Support Program Review. 4. A copy of the March 2007 Senate “Pay Now or Pay Later” Report.

My husband and I are very reasonable people. The current service works for some families, and I am very happy for them. Autism is a 24 hour / 7 day a week disorder. Autism doesn’t just affect a child during the 20 hours of therapy time that he/she receives through the Preschool IBI Service. We feel that a whole family approach works best for us, instead of the child-centred approach that we have witnessed over the past 2 years.

Here are the documents for your interest…….