Over the past few months, four-year-old Kevin* learnt how to speak but his mother is worried he will regress into the silent world of autism if he does not continue receiving regular therapy.
His mother, a single parent, cannot afford to cover the added therapy costs that Inspire Foundation is being forced to charge after the government cut back a large portion of funding.
“It’s not fair. He shouldn’t suffer because of a cutback by the government when there is no alternative. This is not a sad story about me being a single mother. It’s about my son...
“It’s not easy. As a parent you feel guilty as you want to help your son have a better future. You can’t just say: ‘I won’t pay’. If I stop this for him he will regress,” his 29-year-old mother said.
She is one of the parents of some 250 children who are worried about the reduction in services at Inspire – an NGO that works with people with disabilities – due to lack of funds.
Government funding to Inspire dropped in 2010 when it was decided that the direct therapy expenses were outside the education budget and should be paid for by the Health Department.
This year, the Education Ministry provided the NGO with €800,000 to cover the educational expenses of the 250 children. However, the Health Department did not fork out funds for therapy, including speech and occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
The department recently awarded Inspire a contract to provide occupational therapy services to the Child Development Assessment Unit (CDAU).
However, the budget for this service was capped at €37,000 – an amount that would only allow for eight therapy sessions per child.
Inspire functions through a balance of government funding, parent contributions and fund raising. It needs €400,000 a year to cover therapy costs.
Inspire representatives met Health Minister Joe Cassar last Tuesday to discuss a way forward. A ministry spokesman said details were being finalised but declined further comment.
Kevin was diagnosed with autism when he was just over a year old. His mother initially took him to the government’s CDAU but she soon realised he was making little progress as therapy sessions were scarce.
His mother, who underwent major heart surgery and cannot work, then heard about Inspire and approached the foundation about a year ago.
Her son started occupational and speech therapy sessions and she paid €900 a year. Now that the government has stopped the funds, she will have to fork out about €750 extra a year to cope with the same frequency of services and see her son make progress.
“Over less than a year he learnt how to speak. Before, it was just gibberish. He also learnt how to play. Before, if you gave him a toy, he wouldn’t know what do to with it,” she said adding she did not want to take that away from him.
*Name has been changed.