As a mother of three autistic children, I am always online trying to find ways to help them: New ideas, best teaching methods, the correct approach to different issues, etc and I always come across messages, or sites or videos that promise “Miracle cures” for autism: “Autism can be cured!” “Autism can be reversible!”.
Many times I thought that perhaps the cure for autism (Like cancer) already exists but is not convenient because current methods are a multi-million dollar business so it does not call for a “Cure” anytime soon. How sad that is?
I think as parents we are all at different stages of accepting our children’s conditions. It is certainly not an easy process, and as much as we love our children I don’t think any parent was hoping to have a child with a disability. It is a different world where we all learn to cope each day and give our best to them because we love them very much.
Some parents have a harder time than others accepting this and they look for cures anywhere (Who can blame them?) and they are willing to pay any price so that their children can be cured and treated. There are people who unfortunately will take advantage of their situation.
My heart breaks in pieces when parents share with me their stories of taking loans, or giving their last savings to people who promised that a certain method will work out for their child. The methods cost thousands of dollars.
Miracle cures do not exist for autism. Perhaps we should spend more time trying to figure out ways to maximize our children’s potential with the tools they already have rather than spend thousands of dollars in “Cures” that only cause broken hearts and broken pockets. Do not get me wrong, I know there are methods that can benefit children in the spectrum but the issue is finding the correct approach that works for your child and the right people who are genuinely interested in helping them succeed rather than seeing them as a number.
Over the years, I went through different phases in my life with regards to my children’s condition but one thing always remained clear to me:
I am my children’s best advocate and I will utilize every single drop of energy I have to ensure they are not used or abused for profit. I am their voice, their constant companion and I will always ensure to speak up on their behalf.
Wonderful post! It is so true and don’t worry I understand where you are coming from. Therapy is something beneficial for our children but doesn’t mean you’ll take advantage of people’s needs! These organizations you mentioned are formed by therapists themselves and the ones that are not, they depend on therapists for their activities.
Well said! Very good points raised here! Private sector facilities cannot be the main resource for parents, particularly when there is no overaching regulation governing the quality of help available, and no incentive (Positive or negative) for the professionals to provide a basic standard of care to the children.
Sometime ago I was posting in a couple of forums about this exact same issue and I was saying that docs and therapists here they all know each other (If you don’t believe me ask around) and some people were saying they’re not like that etc yeah right I don’t believe that. I take my child to therapy a couple of times during the week now because they drained my savings I don’t have any more money left or support.
You have evidently lived my family’s challenges. When we first discovered that our child had a challenge we started calling around, trying to get him properly assessed. The costs were astronomical.
Finally, though, we were able to get a referral and free evaluation through the public health system. We are now faced with the high monthly costs for speech therapy and behavioral therapy.
Our son is worth every cent, but we also have to provide for his other needs, including healthcare, and right now our resources are almost depleted. I have been doing a lot of research and trying to access all the free online training that I can, because, unless we win the lotto, there is no way that we will be able to continue those payments indefinitely.
Update: I made a few edits to this post so that offended parties will focus on the meat of the topic and not be sidetracked into believing that I am targeting specific people or services.
The focus is on the people who live autism, the autism parents and their children.