WHEN her daughter was diagnosed with autism, Emma Beatty had no choice but to uproot her small family from their home in Moree in search of crucial disability services.
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Mia, now six, was almost two-years-old when her diagnosis revealed she would require regular occupational therapy and speech pathology.
With no paediatric occupational therapist in Moree, Miss Beatty and her children travelled to the Gold Coast.
“Early intervention is the key with autism,” she said.
She explained that autism is a developmental and neurological disorder, and with the brain growing rapidly between the ages of zero and five, it was essential that Mia receive early intervention therapies as soon as possible.
The Hughes family, also from Moree, sold two houses and spent a further $100,000 on intensive early intervention for their son Freddie, they told the Sunday Telegraph.
Miss Beatty, who knows Ms Hughes, said the Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) treatment their son had received was not subsidised by the government and was unaffordable for the average family.
“It’s heartbreaking for me,” she said. “I wish I could give Mia that.”
Miss Beatty said she received $12,000 under the government’s Helping Children with Autism package, to be used before Mia turns seven.
Though she appreciated the funding, it did not cover Mia’s speech and occupational therapy, which costs $300 each week.
“It’s just not adequate.”
Mia received excellent therapy for 18 months at the Gold Coast, but the six-and-a-half-hour drive to Moree left them isolated from extended family, so they moved to Tamworth: “The closest we could get to home that’s got adequate services,” Miss Beatty said.
Mia has been attending Bullimbal school for two years and Miss Beatty said the dedicated staff had “made all the difference”. “I feel proud of what I’ve done with Mia. She is doing things we were told she would probably never do,” she said.
Experts told Miss Beatty it was unlikely her daughter would use speech to communicate and she would probably never have significant relationships.
She does, thanks to early intervention and her mother’s many “sleepless nights” of researching.
She said Mia could now play, and loved to make her Buzz Lightyear toy fly around and say “to infinity and beyond”.
“It’s an indicator that she’s growing, learning and improving.”
Miss Beatty was concerned the government’s payment – though helpful – was short-sighted and Mia would be left in the lurch until 2018 when the NDIS is due to be completed.
“I’m quite confused about the NDIS. I don’t know how that’s going to help Mia. The government needs to realise autism is ongoing.”
She said children like Mia needed the best possible start so they could contribute to the community as adults.
