Show news for a region of your choice (mostly Austraian news).

'Set up to fail': Canberra's NDIS drop out rate soars as calls grow for overhaul

By bobb |

Sherryn Groch

Canberrans are leaving the National Disability Insurance Scheme at the highest rate in the country, as services and advocates in the ACT call for an overhaul of the scheme's internal bureaucracy.

Between September and December 2017, 139 people joined the scheme in the ACT but 101 others left. Figures provided by the National Disability Insurance Agency, which runs the scheme, confirmed 381 Canberrans had exited the NDIS since 2013.

Inclusion is best for people with autism

By bobb |
Professor Rita Jordan

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s article on access for autistic individuals recognised that “autism friendly” sessions are not necessarily a solution, and carry their own dangers (Guess what – people with autism like the cinema too, 2 May).

Many conferences on autism now have modifications such as quiet withdrawal spaces, reduced lighting and “deaf clapping” (silent waving). It is reasonable to meet the needs of known autistic individuals attending an event but not to assume all “autistic” needs are common.

Family targeted by son’s violent outbursts left scared in their own home

By bobb |

Ally Foster

MAX has always been prone to violent outbursts as a result of severe autism, but now he is getting too strong for his parents to control.

IT’S a gut-wrenching choice. Do you risk the safety of your family, or make the heartbreaking decision give up one of your children because of actions that are beyond his control.

Victorian parents Liz and Sean Whelan, both 43, may have to face that dilemma if they can’t find a way to keep the rest of their children safe from one of their son’s violent outbursts.

Teen arrested after spanner attack on 14-year-old with autism

By bobb |

Simone Fox Koob

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in relation to an attack on a teenager with autism who was beaten with spanners outside a Melbourne high school.

Police are investigating the assault on Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, after video footage emerged of him being pinned to the ground and repeatedly punched in the head outside Northcote High School on Tuesday afternoon.

The investigation is ongoing, police say, and they are yet to speak to anyone else involved in relation to the incident.

Melbourne boy with autism attacked by spanner-wielding teens outside Northcote school

By bobb |

James Hancock

The mother of a boy with autism who was assaulted with spanners outside a Melbourne school wants police to charge his teenage attackers.

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, was attacked outside Northcote High School, in the city's inner-north, on Tuesday afternoon.

They had armed themselves with spanners and turned on another boy when he tried to help the victim.

Mother’s incredible reaction to her autistic son’s alleged bashing prompts huge reaction

By bobb |

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic boy who was allegedly bashed by a group of teenage thugs claims her son was targeted after standing up for a friend who was being bullied.

A 15-year-old boy has since been charged by police.

He’s been charged with affray, recklessly causing injury and intentionally causing injury.

The truth about Hans Asperger’s Nazi collusion

By bobb |

Simon Baron-Cohen

Simon Baron-Cohen absorbs the grave revelations in a study on a paediatrician enmeshed in autism’s history.

The Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger has long been recognized as a pioneer in the study of autism. He was even seen as a hero, saving children with the condition from the Nazi killing programme by emphasizing their intelligence. However, it is now indisputable that Asperger collaborated in the murder of children with disabilities under the Third Reich.

USA: Raising Connor

By bobb |

Liz Kowalczyk and Photos by Craig F. Walker

He is a boy easy to love, and also a heart-testing puzzle to those who love him. He longs for home, but home has become somewhere hard to thrive. And yet, beset by autism and other issues, aided by family and teachers, Connor Biscan is learning to rise.

This time he had to go. There was no time to think about where.