Seeking Information on ASD Support in Melbourne

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, we are couple with one of our child (girl) is diagnosed with autism last September. She is almost 4.
We are a couple from Melbourne but currently living in Stockholm, Sweden. It has been very hard to live and manage in a non-English speaking country with our situation especially.
We want to really move back to Melbourne but from the information we found so far the level of support and help available to raise an autistic child is disappointing and hope we are wrong. This is what we found so far.
1. If the child is under 7 years old, there is a possibility to get 12000AUD. This is not per year rather divided for a number of years until the child becomes 7.
2. After that there might be some help available but most likely less than pont 1.
3. In addition we also found if we want to send our child to a full time ABA. It will cost us (out of pocket) 70,000AUD or more per year.
4. When the child reaches school age, it is entirely upto the school to decide if they take the child or not and also support is not that promising.
5. Child that are older, we are not sure if there is any good support.
I do not mean just financially, I am also referring to therapy, ABA etc.
I am not sure how parents raise children with autisim if they are not able to afford 70,000AUD or more per year.
I really hope my finding are incorrect. Any help with this topic will greatly benefit us if returning home.

Hello.
I am an Australian (Brisbane), currently living in Tokyo. So I can understand the difficulty of surviving in a non-english speaking country.
Was your daughter diagnosed with high functioning autism / aspergers or classic autism?
This might help us understand your requirements better.
Maz

Hello Maz,
Thanks for the response. She is diagonsed with Autism (perhaps classic autism) and they were unable to state whether it is high functional or not because they feel she is too young to state that. Mainly because they were unable to test her IQ.
From what I know, she is a lot verbal (but cannot say she is speaking well, mainly one, two or three words maximum in a sentence), very less eye contact, self talking, does not play with other children together, tantrums.
This could be the classic autism, since it seen as a spectrum she is diagnosed as ASD.
Sweden may not follow the same structure as Australia. I hope this gives a better picture.

Thanks. I feel a bit silly for asking that question now when obviously she would be too young for them to know. My apologies. If a significant factor in your decision to move or not is the amount of govt / social support you will be able to get for your daughter, you are probably better off in scandanavia. Australia seems fairly reasonable about what is covered by the public health system but I have not had experience with your situation. There is likely to be increased financial costs for you to take care of your daughter if she has classic / LFA.

There are other Australians on WP who might be more help but because of the timezone (its 1:38am on the east coast), you may have just missed them tonight. I'd suggest bumping your thread in about 7 or 8 hours to give them a chance to see it in the morning.
Maz

Shout out to any Melbourneite parents of an ASD child. I think your experiences may be valuable.
Maz