Autism First Steps 11-25-01 (Part 3)

AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sunday, November 25, 2001

INDEX:
* GPs call on government to drop MMR
* Dental Care and Autism
* Living With Asperger’s Syndrome
* Councils 'bully' parents who teach their children at home
* Happy Thanksgiving, A Different Perspective
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GPs call on government to drop MMR

Public trust more important. By Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor

THE government has been urged to introduce single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in an editorial in the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, the professional body for family doctors.The British Journal of General Practice argues that the government is inconsistent in refusing to offer separate vaccines to parents who fear a link between the MMR inoculation and autism. It also warns that the Department of Health would be responsible for any outbreak of childhood disease due to unvaccinated infants.The journal also calls for payments to GPs who meet immunisation targets to be scrapped after a survey found that the policy causes patients to distrust their doctor.Dr David Jewell, editor of the journal, said: 'The report confirms anecdotal evidence that there is a substantial minority of people who would like to make the decision separately for the three diseases and who, if faced with the choice between none and three vaccines, will opt for none. If the immunisation rate were to fall dangerously low then the department would have to bear some of the blame for the resulting harm. 'Beyond this is patients' autonomy. Some parents have clearly signalled their willingness to have their children immunised with one, two or even all three vaccines, provided they can be given separately. The Department of Health's position of simply repeating the evidence and its previous advice fails to respect patients' autonomy, or acknowledge that we all, as both patients and professionals, make important decisions that are only partly based on the best evidence. The DoH, as one arm of government, should try to be consistent about this. It cannot encourage choice in some areas of public policy and discourage it in others.'The criticism of current vaccination policy will be a major blow to the government which had boasted the support of GPs in refusing to introduce single vaccines.Fears were raised over the safety of the triple vaccine after a paper published in the Lancet suggested a link between the jab and autism and bowel disease in children. This link has been widely disputed.The editorial was prompted by the findings of a survey of parents' views published in this month's edition of the journal. It states: 'Some of these parents recognised that payments to GPs based on achieving immunisation targets represent a major conflict of interest that could compromise their ability to provide impartial information and advice to their patients.'The DoH may wish to consider whether preserving patients' trust in their doctors has a value that far outweighs the benefit of high MMR immunisation rates.'The survey, led by Bristol University researchers, states: 'Parents reported unwelcome pressure from professionals to accept immunisation and many had accepted MMR because of this pressure rather than making an informed choice, feeling that it was easier to comply than to refuse.'All groups emphasised that parents should be able to choose which immunisations, if any, their children received, and they all wanted the single vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella to be available as an alternative to MMR. Parents felt that the promotion of MMR was partly on considerations of cost and convenience, such as the potential difficulty in tracking individuals for separate immunisations.'Last week a ruling by the General Medical Council opened the way for Dr Peter Mansfield to continue giving inoculations against measles, mumps, and rubella instead of the MMR triple vaccine.The GP was reported to the GMC by Worcestershire Health Authority which claimed he was acting contrary to normal medical practice and against the best interests of patients.Dr Peter Copp, whose private Edinburgh clinic GP Plus has been offering single vaccines, said: 'This editorial is of great significance because it is going to be read by almost every GP. This journal is the defining journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners. It is the academic bible of British GPs. Along with what happened with Dr Mansfield this marks the beginning of a change in attitude to acknowledge that offering an alternative to the MMR is a reasonable and even laudable thing to do.'Bill Welsh, the grandfather of an autistic child and chair of Action on Autism, added: 'The GMC decision last week confirmed that it is acceptable for parents to have single vaccines. That senior doctors are now calling for 'choice' indicates how out of step the civil servants are on this issue.' The Scottish Executive last night reiterated that the MMR vaccine has been proven to be safe and there would be no change in vaccination policy.A spokeswoman added that new information packs on MMR to family health professionals across the country.
http://www.sundayherald.co.uk/20428

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Dental Care and Autism with Dr. David Isen AT HIS OFFICE – 4800 LESLIE STREET SUITE 111, NORTH YORK Tuesday December 11th, 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm Cost: Members $ 5.00, Non-Members $ 15.00
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Living With Asperger’s Syndrome.
Gary Waleski, An Adult With Asperger’s
Talks About His Experiences

Tuesday, December 18th, 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm, 2nd Floor Boardroom Understanding how the disorder affects the child and tips on how to effectively deal with children in your care. To help parents, teacher and EAs better understand and help facilitate the child’s growth in school. Gary is totally independent, works fulltime, has further career goals, does frequent public speaking presentations on autism/PDD, and is newsletter editor for Autism Society Ontario – Halton Chapter. He has a large circle of friends, many hobbies & interests and leads a well-balanced and fulfilling life.Cost: Members $ 5.00, Non-Members $ 15.00

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Councils 'bully' parents who teach their children at home

Call for clear guidelines on teaching children out of school. By Stephen Naysmith Education Correspondent

PARENTS who choose to educate their children at home face disinformation, harassment and heel-dragging from councils, according to support groups which are calling on the Scottish Executive to act. Though most people choose to let schools take the strain of teaching their kids, it is perfectly legal for parents to opt out of the system and take a different approach.However, the details of the law in Scotland are unclear and variation in the rules is widespread across the country. While such inconsistency is left unchecked, home educated children -- thought to be more than 4000 in Scotland -- are suffering, campaigners claim. Now a national support group is demanding that the Scottish Executive acts to rein in councils and jobsworth officials. In some cases, parents are told they will be acting illegally if they keep their children away from school, while others are told they must have teaching qualifications or write detailed timetables before they can educate their own children.In England and Wales, parents can remove their children from school simply by notifying the education authority in writing. However, Scottish parents have to jump through hoops -- undefined in law -- in order to gain 'consent' for their children to leave. The only way to avoid this is simply never to send your children to a school in the first place.Guidelines for councils on the issue were promised by the Executive for November 2000, but they are over a year late. Recently, former education minister Jack McConnell confirmed that they would be later still. The issues raised were complex, he said, and needed 'careful and detailed consideration'. He promised only that draft guidance will be issued for consultation 'shortly'. However, Executive sources confirmed that a change of education minister, as a result of McConnell's move to First Minister, could only slow the process further.The councils themselves were condemned as 'bullies' last week by the Schoolhouse Home Education Association which supports parents. Convener John White said: 'We are still hearing on a daily basis from families who have been treated abysmally by education officials some of whom have made unannounced visits to homes and have demanded access to children when the law affords them no such rights.'White said the Dundee-based association was inundated with complaints from families about their treatment at the hands of education officials. Some of the tactics adopted by local councils when parents withdraw their children have also been condemned in a report by the Scottish Consumer Council, which estimates that as many as 4000 children are home educated in Scotland. They describe 'shocking' barriers put in the way of parents, combined with 'unacceptable harassment' .More than half of all the leaflets provided by councils contained misleading information and no real effort appeared to be made to address parents' complaints or provide consistency across the country. 'We utterly condemn the practices we have come across by some local authorities in Scotland,' the report concluded.Jackie Turner broke the law when her son Cameron was five. She had watched his self-esteem plummet since he started at school in Edinburgh, while his teachers had him marked down as a troublemaker. She decided to teach him at home instead, but did not wait for Edinburgh council to consent to his departure. 'I didn't send him back to school, which is technically against the law,'she said. ' When he first went there, he was a bright, inquisitive four-year-old child, and dying to go. But he was quickly disappointed, changed out of hand and became withdrawn. He stopped asking questions.'Now eight, Cameron is learning according to his own interests, at his own pace, Jackie says, but like many such parents, she had a frustrating battle to convince her council that she was competent to educate her own son. She now advises other parents when they deal with misinformation, delays and endless needless questions from officials reluctant to accept that the child can possibly be getting a decent education.But barriers and harassment are not the worst thing that can happen. It is not unknown for children like Cameron to be referred to the children's panel on the grounds of 'truancy'. Meanwhile, a council's educational role can become blurred with a council's child protection duties and social work. This is 'bound to be terrifying for parents', the SCC said.Cameron's mother says that home education is not a move any parent takes on lightly. 'Home educators tend to be in a financially more difficult situation. We gave up our house to home educate,' Jackie explains. She also gave up her job to teach Cameron, Bryn, six, and her daughter Eilish, who would normally start primary education in August.The reasons why parents opt out of mainstream schooling are often different. Some never send their children in the first place, others remove them because of unhappiness, bullying or 'school phobia'. Turner believes schools have too little time and too many pupils. 'An awful lot of schooling is about crowd management.' She has little time for the common complaint that somehow children will be isolated if they don't go to school. 'That is based on a romanticised idea of what school is like. The socialisation of kids that goes on at school is often negative. Children can learn bad habits, learn to be a bully or a victim. Sometimes that's worse than no socialisation at all.'Cameron and Bryn learn according to different principles, far from the rigidity of the Scottish school curriculum, their mother says. 'A lot of home educating parents don't have a regular timetable. Their children learn based on what they are interested in. Kids often get wildly interested in something and that is when they forge ahead.' That kind of flexibility just isn't available to teachers within the modern five to 14 curriculum, in an education system paralysed by modules, school assessments and formal exams, she claims. As a result, home educated children may make no progress for months in one subject area, while advancing rapidly in another. It is a dramatically different approach to education, but organisations like Schoolhouse and Education Otherwise argue it is no less valid. 'As long as you provide your education authority with a personal statement -- what your educational philosophy is and your aims and objectives -- then they should consent,' Turner said.Shadow depute minister for children, Irene McGugan MSP, who has tabled questions in the Scottish parliament about the issue, said some children were being forced to attend school despite desperate unhappiness, waiting for councils to give consent: 'Local authorities must not be allowed to place obstacles in the way of families who have decided, for whatever reason, that they can best provide for their children's needs out of school.'Perth and Kinross Council, although heavily criticised by Schoolhouse, 'fully respects' the right of parents to educate at home, a spokeswoman said. However, she added that the education department was required to monitor the education parents provided and had procedures in place to do so. Edinburgh Council provides a leaflet for parents which demands they provide outline timetables and details of qualifications of those doing the teaching. It also warns of inspection visits from council officials. None of these are justified in law, and unwanted visits may be in breach of European human rights law, according to Turner.An Executive spokesperson said: 'We want the guidance to promote an effective partnership between home educating families and education authorities. Every effort is being made to issue draft guidance for consultation as soon as possible.'
http://www.sundayherald.co.uk/20415
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Happy Thanksgiving, A Different Perspective

I am thankful...

...for the husband who complains when his dinner is not on time, because it means he is home with me, not with someone else..... for the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes, because it means she is at home, not on the streets
... for the taxes that I pay, because it means that I am employed.
... for the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends..
...for the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat
... for my shadow that watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine
... for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home... for all the complaining I hear about the Government, because it means we have freedom of speech
... for the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking, and that I have been blessed with transportation.... for my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.
... for the lady behind me in church that sings off key, because it means that I can hear.
... for the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear
... for weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard.
... for the alarm that goes off in the early morning, because it means that I am alive.

And finally ....
for too much e-mail, because it means I have friends who are thinking of me
Send this to someone you care about ... I just did
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