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

Patients 'locked in cages' at Bribie Island care facility

By bobb |

Warning: do not read on if you are at all sensitive to distressing news.

Tristan Swanwick, September 01, 2009 12:00am

INTELLECTUALLY impaired residents of a Queensland care home were locked in cages, tied to toilets and struck with fly swatters by staff, a court heard yesterday.

Susan Beryl Lister, 60, yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to charges of deprivation of liberty and assault.

Schools telling disabled children to stay at home

By bobb |

Justine Ferrari, Education writer | August 26, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

SCHOOLS are turning children with disabilities into part-time students by restricting their attendance hours in breach of anti-discrimination laws.

Some school principals are limiting the time disabled students are in class to match the hours a teacher's aide or other assistance is available, Macquarie and Sydney university researchers have found.

A first for autism child-care

By bobb |

La Trobe University has been chosen by the Federal Government as Victorian service provider under its new national Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centres program.

In partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital, the University will receive $4 million over four years to develop such a centre, co-located with its Community Children’s Centre on the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.

Family forced to head to UK for autistic son's sake

By bobb |

see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/20/2661233.htm?site=local

 

A New South Wales family have made the gut-wrenching decision to leave the home and friends they love and move to the UK because they say Australia cannot provide the support and services they need for their autistic son.

It is estimated that 500,000 Australian families are affected by autism.

National autism register to be established

By bobb |

Australian Associated Press

"We need to know the extent of autism in Australia so we can properly support people with ASD." Bill Shorten

A national register will be created to track the rising incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Australia, the federal government has announced.

Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services Bill Shorten told a regional autism conference in Sydney that a register would help improve government support services.

Australia signs UN disability protocol

By bobb |

People with disabilities now have another avenue to complain about being discriminated against under an agreement ratified by 40 nations.

Australia has signed up to the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Optional Protocol.

The protocol, agreed to by 40 nation's, allows complaints to be lodged to the UN if all domestic remedies have been exhausted.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said it was crucial to get a new national disability strategy up and running.

Kevin Rudd taps into concerns on autism

By bobb |

A SMALL centre for autistic children on Brisbane's northside may have won a visit from Kevin Rudd in a charity auction, but the Prime Minister showed yesterday that he is highly sensitive to autism in the broader community.

Mr Rudd yesterday morning met staff and students during a visit to the AEIOU Centre for Children with Autism at Bray Park, which won the prime ministerial visit as a prize at a charity auction.

Studies show increase in Autism cases

By bobb |

Australian officials currently estimate that about one in 160 children are diagnosed with autism, but findings from two new studies suggest it is much more common.

It is not clear whether autism itself is on the rise, or whether better diagnosis is inflating the figures.

...

Researchers from Melbourne's La Trobe University studied 20,000 children as they grew from infants to toddlers.

They trained baby health nurses to pick up early signs of autism.

Dr Cheryl Dissanayake is one of the lead researchers.

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