KidsAbility lays off 8 therapists, 1 social worker after changes to Ontario Autism Program

KidsAbility has laid off nine people who provide autism therapy services, and their CEO says uncertainty around changes to the Ontario Autism Program is to blame.

The layoffs include eight instructor therapistswho work directly with children to provide behavioural supports as well as one family support worker/social worker who will be laid off as of April 1, when the changes to the autism program take effect.

KidsAbility is an organization that helps families of children with complex and special needs with various forms of therapy, including programs for speech, hearing, blindness or low vision, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, physiotherapy, orthotics and autism. The programs don't charge families directlyand are instead paid for by the province and the KidsAbility Foundation.

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Linda Kenny, chief executive officer of KidsAbility, says it was not an easy step for the organization to lay off workers.

On April 1, rather than the province paying KidsAbility to provide services for families of children with autism, parents will now be given money and they'll decide where to get the services. It could be KidsAbilityor it could be a private business.

In a previous interview, Kenny called the change "a complete seismic shift" for how they deliver services to children.

"It's never easy when you have to have those difficult conversations with staff," Kenny said on Tuesday. "We know that our staff are dedicated professional folks who come to work every day because they want to make a difference for kids and families, and so it's been a very difficult week for us at KidsAbility."

Didn't want families to feel 'left on their own'

Kenny says parents and caregivers are asking KidsAbility questions about the changes to the program, although staff aren't able to answer everything.

"We're working really hard with both our staff and families to build a new model of service delivery because we know that families will want to continue to have their child receive services from us," Kenny said.

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They've come up with a list of services they'll offer as of April 1, and in the meantime, Kenny said, they're trying their best to meet the needs of families.

"We wanted to make sure that families did not feel that they were just being left on their own to fend for themselves, and we want to make sure that we can keep as many of our staff employed as possible," she said.

Kenny says they know KidsAbilitywill receive some kind of transitional funding as the changes to the program come into effect, "but we're still awaiting details on how much that will be and what we're eligible to do with those funds, but we do know that it's going to be a substantial decrease from the core funding that we've received."

Kenny says she hopes that parents will see the benefit of the programming offered at KidsAbility and bring their child there, which may mean they could potentially rehire the laid-off therapistsand social worker.

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Changes to Ontarios autism program were met with angry opposition from families who say the cost of autism therapy could ruin them.

Provided advice to province

Kenny says they've been in contact with elected MPPs from Waterloo region on the file. She says they've always had a positive working relationship with the government.

Their job, she says, is to implement the policy of the government of the day.

"We have provided our best advice to the government on what we think would be improvements to the Ontario Autism Program and at the end of the day, the government has moved forward with what they want in terms of their new Ontario Autism Program and our job at KidsAbility is to figure out how we continue to support kids and families through those transitions and changes," she said.

Parents and caregivers have rallied against the move, taking their protests to Queen's Park.Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Lisa MacLeodhasreceived personal threats to her safety over the changes.

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Kitchener South-Hespeler MPP Amy Fee, who is the parliamentary assistant to the minister of children, community and social services with a focus on children and autism, was not available to comment on the issue on Tuesday, a staff member at her riding office in Cambridge said.

Staff forMacLeod did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the layoffs or when organizations would learn more about transitional funding.