Julien Bonin says long travel times are hard on children with autism, some forego services
New research is highlighting the challenges families with autistic children face when trying to get therapy and care in northern Ontario.
Julien Bonin is a master’s student in interdisciplinary health at Laurentian University in Sudbury, and the father of two children on the autism spectrum.
He has compiled a snapshot of the distances families have to travel to access therapies for their autistic children and what it’s like travelling with them. For some parents, the risks mean that they won’t seek out services for their children.
Bonin collected information by survey from 120 families across northern Ontario, and said the geography itself poses particular obstacles to finding the right services.
Most services, he said, are centred in Sudbury or Thunder Bay despite having cities scattered across the region. He said where you live can dramatically affect proximity to programs and therapies.
“I found seven communities that were classified as urban. So if you’re outside those seven cities, there’s about 40 minute drive one way to access the closest services
“That might not be the services that you need, or they might not have space for your child,” he said. “So then if you’re looking at the second and third closest providers and the times really get larger and larger.”
Bonin said the average time for non-urban residents could vary from 40 minutes to an hour-and-a-half one way.
Travelling distances can pose extra challenges for families: researcher
Bonin also asked families about what happens during those times in the car with their children.
“Do they like to open the doors, open the windows and unbuckle the seat belt?”
Bonin also asked if their behavior in a vehicle can be distracting.
To compound the risk, he said northern roads can be narrow, and bad weather or accidents can strike, leaving families stranded in the middle of nowhere when highways close.
“Forty percent of people living outside the big urban areas said that travel with their children was a barrier to accessing services,” he said.
He added some 20 percent often just stayed home because the risk wasn’t worth it and the travel was too hard on the children
He has his own experience with that.
“My oldest one doesn’t like to travel at all,” he said. “I live in Sudbury. But by the time I travel to the provider, which is usually about a 20 kilometer drive one-way, my son is overwhelmed so he can’t get through the actual services. So the service doesn’t really benefit him.”
The research strikes a chord with another Sudbury parent of two children with autism.
Sean Staddon said he’s had to cancel doctors’ appointments among other appointments when outings didn’t go as planned.
For example, he said his son, who loves to go swimming at the YMCA, can become agitated in the car when he finds out along the way that he isn’t going there.
“It can sometimes lead to self harm, and they get very frustrated and upset about stuff like that,” said Staddon.
“It has definitely happened in the car. Sometimes it’ll happen when we try to get them out of the car. It happened kind of in the middle of trying to take him to some kind of sports activity and he doesn’t want to participate.”
Staddon said he has gone to counselling himself to learn how to better manage difficult situations.
As for dealing with his son, he has learned to redirect his attention, and he has relied on advice from other parents.
“Parents are pretty resilient,” he said.”We have a good network of ideas.”
He says it’s likely other parents have experienced the same situations and can offer strategies to keep parents, and passengers safe.