Goya Bennett
February 4, 2011

A BOY with autism has been refused enrolment at a special school because the Education Department determined that he knows too many words.

Matthew, 5, missed his first day of prep after the department's western region office rejected his application for Western Autistic School at the Niddrie or Laverton campus.

Although he self-harms and cannot hold a pencil, Matthew was deemed to have scored too well on the entrance test, which was based on language.

Media Release

The Government rejected the latest call from the community to help people with autism, their families and carers in their efforts to inform and influence policy that affects them.

16th Nov 2010

Fundamental changes are taking place in the area of mental health. Amanda Sheppeard looks at the top five controversies identified by leaders in the field. Amanda Sheppeard all articles by this author

THE EXPERTS

Professor Ian Hickie

Executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, professor of psychiatry at the University of Sydney, and an NHMRC Australian Medical Research Fellow.

Professor Gordon Parker

Executive director of the Black Dog Institute, research director of the Mood Disorders Unit, and Scientia Professor at the University of NSW.

Jan McLucas, Jenny Macklin posted Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Today marks the two year anniversary of the Australian Government’s $190 million Helping Children with Autism package, an initiative aimed at providing early intervention services to children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In the two years since its introduction, more than 10,000 Australian children aged up to six years old have accessed more than 220,000 early intervention services through the Government’s autism package.

BY PHILLIP THOMSON 15 Oct, 2010

An inquest into the death of a profoundly autistic Canberra teenager at Canberra Hospital in 2008 has heard that a person may have committed an indictable offence that led to the tragedy.

NSW Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon yesterday suspended the inquest, which began at Queanbeyan Local Court on Monday, to allow the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the person in question.

Jack Sullivan, 18, died on February 18, 2008, at Canberra Hospital.

The foreword to this report says "the value of informal care has increased to exceed $40 billion per annum in 2010, 33% higher than in 2005". It says this is based on $31 per hour replacement costs. Probably, some of the value is estimated based on conjugate/centre-based care - so better care would be more expensive.

This report is not autism/ASD specific ... but is contains valuable and relevant material.

Debra Jopson October 4, 2010

A researcher who has found strong evidence that autism is caused by mercury poisoning has been refused access to data that could point to emissions from coal-fired power stations.

The director of the Swinburne Autism Bio-Research Initiative, David Austin, said the data on autism incidence by postcode could quickly answer the question of whether mercury emissions from power stations are implicated in babies and infants developing the disorder.