A new project launched by Townsville Police is improving how officers respond to disturbances, involving people with a special needs, such as autism.

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The Centre wishes to advise all its subscribers, supporters, volunteers and friends that the Asperger Centre at Virginia Qld will be closed from 17 May 2019.

Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia appreciates the contribution that the Centre made: the dedication, advancement, information and referrals, support for families and individuals on the spectrum, the conferences they organised providing access to world class presenters and the mothers' weekends away. The Centre was a fabulous bunch of people with Stefanie as its cornerstone. 

Kay Dibben

A FEMALE psychologist who was treating an autistic sexual abuse victim ending up having a sexual relationship with him.

Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal has heard that the psychologist, then in her early 30s, knew the 18-year-old, who had a mental age of a 13 or 14-year-old, thought she looked like his former special needs teacher who had had sex with him.

Despite the teenager developing an inappropriate personal interest in her, the psychologist did not refer him to another psychologist.

Jessica Hinchliffe

Clay Lewis spent two years trying to find part-time work before he decided to start his own business, one that's now so successful he's had to hire extra staff.

"I was trying to get a job at a fast food restaurant but I wasn't successful," the 16-year-old with autism said.

So after some local market research and number crunching, Clay opened a bin-cleaning business with his mother Laura's help.

A TEENAGER with autism will not be allowed to return to North Queensland for New Year’s Eve after a magistrate ruled he posed an unacceptable risk to his mother and grandmother. The 18-year-old faces charges of breaching a domestic violence order and is ...

... the rest of this story is behind the pay-wall.

Rick Morton

A Queensland psychologist ­accused of once leading a New Age cult which promised paying clients the ability to “move between ­dimensions” has been working as an approved provider of a federal autism program since 2015.

Natasha Lakaev — who ran courses through a program called Universal Knowledge from a Northern NSW property known as Omaroo in the early 2000s — once claimed to be a “metaphysician” who could heal HIV and other diseases and later retrained as a psychologist.

Caitlan Charles

THE DAY is almost here. After months of planning, the Local Paws Walk for Autism is on this Saturday.

The walk, which will raise funds for a local sensory therapy facility for families managing children and young adults with autism, is the brain-child of Veronica Balsamello, whose son has autism.

It al began when she wanted to do something for people with autism in the Clarence Valley and give them the opportunity to live a full life.

Here is another report, this time from Queensland, describing some serious inadequacies of the NDIS with particular impact on autistic people ... though the report fails completely to mention autistic people. The report talks about people with impaired decision-making capacity; it mentions intellectual disability and brain injury, but does not mention autism spectrum disorder (ASD, which is the biggest distinct disability type in the NDIS).

Recommendations

The Public Trustee

We recommend that the Public Trustee of Queensland:

Barbara Miller

The young man who runs onto the rugby field today bears little resemblance to the shy, awkward teenager who first approached the University of Queensland Rugby Club several years ago with an unusual request.

Connor Whelan, 22, appears happy and confident as he shakes hands with the opposing team, Souths.

Head coach Paul Farmer still remembers well the nervous autistic boy who first came to see him with his father, asking for something largely missing from his life, inclusion.