Autistics Speaking Day: Autistics Speaking Day 2011

Autistics Speaking Day: Autistics Speaking Day 2011: This is my first post on the Autistics Speaking Day blog.  It will be short but more detailed posts will be added later.  The purpose of thi...

URGENT CALLS

ALL URGENT CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE OF ANY TYPE ADD HERE

Categories of Services

In order to present a united front to government as to what services are needed the first step is to decide on categories of services. The recently passed combating autism bill sets aside $1 billion dollars over the next 5 years for everything. That number is crap and most of it will go to eugenics supporting research. We need to develop some general categories of services, then we need to place specific services within those categories. After that we will put a price tag on each of those services over the expected treatment period based on an average of all the families that use that treatment. I would appreciate it if my bio-med parents would get me some numbers on cost averages for each of the bio-med treatments. However, for right now lets begin with the categories. Bio-med is a big category and some parents are hesitant to move into it with both feet so is it possible to break it up into smaller categories with the most controversial treatment in a category all by itself. If this is not really possible without totally destroying the continuity of care for the child then we can just lump bio-med in a category of its own. Help me here googlybear and others. All my ND participants help me understand what interventions and supports that you see as critical in your life by posting what you have used or are currently using as supports to the "Services Desired" post and then posting the category they go in here in this post.

Autism Speaks Debate

Is Autism Speaks salvageable as an organization and if so what would have to happen to make it a functional voice for Autistics?

This is a place to define the requirements for any organization professing to be the voice of the autistic community as a whole.

Services Desired By Parents

This is a place to list the services that you as parents currently use or support because you have used them in the past. This is not a place to discuss you opinions about the validity of these services only list the services you have used or are currently using. I would like to see a list of services that you would like to use but do not have the financial ability to give your child placed in a separate comment called WISH LIST. Please take a minimal amount of time to list your personal (not science or research data just your personal reasons you may refer to research you have read only in a generic sense) reasons for wanting this service. Please use my comments as an example.

Welcome To "Combating Autism Speaks"

This is a blog for one purpose and one purpose only. To bring together people whose lives are touched by autism in any manner who believes that any organization that is a proponent of eugenics is bad. Any organization that allows a senior vice president to go on television and talk about contemplating killing her autistic child is wrong. Any organization that sees autism and therefore autistics as a plague is wrong. It is a place for us to form a coalition to speak out against Autism Speaks. It is a place for us to develop a strategy to get our needs as adult autistics and parents of autistic children to the appropriate government officials in order to improve services and treatments for co-morbid issues common to Autistic Spectrum Disorders. There are words which cause us all to become angry. Using those words or phrases will hinder the purpose of this coalition. In order for this to be an open blog there must be a few rules. Failure to abide by these rules voluntarily will turn this into a moderated blog where I will enforce them unilaterally.

1. Until a parent is deemed unfit by a court they will be treated as an intelligent person that has the best interest of their child at heart.
2. All parental decisions regarding what is right for their child will be respected.
3. We will support each other's differing choices in how to deal with our children and agree to disagree peaceably on the individual methods employed.
4. We will NOT use the word "cure" on this blog because it is the euphemism used by Autism Speaks to describe pre-natal testing and eugenic abortion of autistic fetuses. The terms we will use to describe ALL services performed for or to an Autistic Person is either "treatments" or "interventions". These terms will be used interchangeably and are assumed to mean the same thing whether it is a bio-med intervention or speech therapy.
5. Bio-medical products will be described as supplements, supports, or therapeutic devices.
6. PECS, computers, voice output devices, and other supportive items will be generally termed assistive devices or assistive technology.
7. The term "curebie" will not be applied on this blog EXCEPT when referring to any paid staff member of Autism Speaks and in any other reference will be considered cursing.
8. There will be NO DISCUSSION of our individual positions on treating autism in our own children. If any ND or Bio-med person is asked a direct question about their theories then please direct the questioner to a different blog and discuss to your heart's content your views. This is not the forum for that discussion.
9. Another no-no word on this blog is chelation (see rule 5). Let me gently apologize to my bio-med parents but I must do this. I understand that the chelation deaths of autistic children were from doctors that were not following the proper protocols for treating children. However, to avoid the sensationalism that is often associated with the word chelation because of these incidents I really need for it to not be used. Since chelation is a support to the immune system you can call it immune support or simply lump it in with all the other supplements.
10. THERE WILL BE NO CURSING, NAME CALLING, FLAMING, BASHING, BACKBITING OR HARASSING ANYONE ON THE COALITION!! This includes cyber-stalking! I have very strong religious beliefs but there is another reason I will not tolerate foul language and that is the fact that my young teenage son who is autistic will be involved in this effort and I will not allow him to be exposed to graphic language on anything I support. If this becomes a problem I will resort to moderating this blog which is really not what I want to have to do.

We are all adults. Lets behave in such a way as to demonstrate that we are aware that we are adults.