PR with Autistic Son

[shant]

Dear,

 

I am planning to move to Adelaide in 6 months on PR 190, however i have a 3 year son with ASD, he has been advised to do ABA, OT and Speech therapy and currently we are doing those however i would like to the following:

 

1) What kind of government funding options are available in SA for such case?

2) What is the waiting period for such funding?

3) Where should i start from? Can i start now and register my son in a particular school or government agency so by the time i come there his name is already on the list?

 

Basically i need some guidance here on where to start from? i dont want to come to Adelaide and wait to start therapy for my son as every minute is precious for my son.

 

Thanks,

[NicF]

Welcome to the forum.

 

While there is government funding available for these services it is limited and may not cover the full cost of the services. You will need to see a GP to get a health care plan put in place which will give you access to a certain number of sessions a year. I can't remember how many sessions it is but it's not that many. And I'm not sure if it's possible to access these services on the public system or what kind of waiting list there is if it is.

 

The good news though is that there are plenty of places that you can access these services privately, and if you are eligible (ie if you have a health care plan from your GP) you will get a rebate from Medicare towards the cost. I can highly recommend a place called Kids Sense in Unley for the OT, and I think they do speech therapy as well. I don't know what ABA is though. My son was a lot older but we took him for 8 weekly sessions of OT with them for his coordination and handwriting and I was really pleased with the sessions and the results.

[cliffy]

I know of two people here with similar diagnoses for their children.

One is of school age, enrolled in the National Disability scheme, and does seem to have some help, but what the qualifications and assessments to get on to the scheme I do not know. Perhaps someone who has experience of it could advise. It is fairly new scheme and is still being rolled out.

The other family has no help at present and has to pay privately for all additional therapies. Their son is under school age. Private health insurance pays towards some of the costs, after a waiting period for pre-existing complaints.

There does not seem to be much in the way of funded assistance for ASD

[keldaz]

Hey shant, the best place to start is Autism SA. All information is available on their website, including a brochure to download. You could start the ball rolling now via email, so your aware of the processes. They are basicly the centre of the web for all help and funding for care, support and home. All the best.

[shant]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for the reply, has anyone dealt with NDIS? I saw that in SA they will do a complete rollout in Feb 2016, but i have also read that some people had to wait for 40 - 80 days before getting funding? also even for assessment with NDIS it takes time., can any one share their experience with NDIS? also i know that NDIS will not cover 100% of therapy however i came across this website which mention's other kind of help and funding also http://raisingchildren.net.au/support/autism_support.html, can anyone share their experience about funding other than NDIS?

 

Thanks,