Nova Scotia announces $12M in funding for new autism services for children

The Nova Scotia government announced Thursday it is beefing up early intervention services for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Brian Comer, the minister responsible for the Office of Addictions and Mental Health, announced $12 million in funding for a new care model that includes six enhanced services that will be rolling out over the next two years.

Some of the services include the creation of autism intervention teams to work with families, having more clinicians working on diagnosis, bringing the length of the early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) program back up to 12 months for some children, and making the QuickStart program for toddlers available to families across the province.

According to Autism Nova Scotia, one in 34 five-year-old children in the province have been diagnosed with autism.

Lisa Foley, a mother of two children with autism and a member of the advisory committee for the new service model, said these new services will be life changing for many families. She said people contact her "at least once a day" seeking help finding services.

"They have no idea how to start, and it's just all about helping those families where I once was," Foley said.

Foley said the extension of the EIBI program is one of the most significant changes. The intensive therapy program is supposed to help children build up communication skills to get them ready for school over the course of a year.

It was shortened to six months when growing demand for the service exceeded capacity, partly due to the pandemic. 

Six months not enough

Families have often spoken out about the current six-month program not being adequate for the complex needs of their children. 

"[EIBI] can do so much for a child and their family and they can actually live a fuller life," Foley said. "Six months is not enough for a family to actually go through training with the intensive program. You need a whole year."

She said once her children had access to early intervention, everything changed. 

"I went from zero language to actually talking. I went from behaviours to no behaviours. I went from zero socialization to socializing with children and family. And it just made such a difference in the lives of my family."

Comer said EIBI won't be 12 months long for all children who participate in the program, but those with the highest communication and behavioural needs will be able to complete the full year. He said this change will be in effect by September 2023. 

QuickStart available across the province

Cynthia Carroll, executive director of Autism Nova Scotia, said the expansion of QuickStart will likely be the first of the suite of changes to come into effect because the rollout will be starting "immediately."

"This is really important for us to get moving on," Carroll said. "The provincial government has provided the funding and made that available to us as an organization to be able to start the process. And so we're moving as quickly as we can."

QuickStart is a parent-mediated coaching program for families of toddlers who are either diagnosed or suspected to have autism. It was previously only available to families in the Halifax region, but Carroll said it should be extended by this coming September.

"The team will aim to support 111 children provincially in the first year and 150 children provincially in the second year, and on an annual basis after that," she said.

She said Autism Nova Scotia staff has been preparing for this, and will start posting available positions online in the next two to four weeks.

Comer said the new care model will also include things like a central wait-list for autism diagnosis, autism diagnosis training for community doctors, and new educational resources like online modules and training sessions for families and caregivers. 

According to the Office of Addictions and Mental Health, these changes should all be in effect by 2024.

"It's an amazing opportunity for the expansion, not only for my family, because it's not going to benefit us right now, but it's going to benefit going forward with these kiddos being diagnosed," Foley said. "So it's just a wonderful opportunity to now receive treatment that before these children weren't receiving."