Aurora resident and Ukrainian immigrant Rita Kitrysh said there have been challenges after finding out her three-year-old son has autism.
Her son is non-verbal and has shown some aggressive tendencies, Kitrysh said. Although she expresses she is glad to be in a country accepting of those on the spectrum, some supports that she has tried to get have been inaccessible as she is not a permanent resident.
The family “is ready to do their best,” said Russu, speaking through a translator. “Doesn’t matter (if there) will be help from the government or not. (We) will work. (We) will do everything to give the kid the ability to live in normal society.”
Advocates are speaking out about a lack of services for those with disabilities. With the influx of Ukrainian immigrants due to the Russian invasion, concern has sprung up around those with children who have autism being able to access provincial support.
Liz Zur is a disability advocate who has lobbied the government about this and has helped connect Ukrainian families with services. Zur said that without permanent status, the immigrants are not granted access to supports like the Ontario Disability Support Program and the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities.
“When they arrive with special needs children, they are left with frequently no resources to meet the needs of their children,” she said. “They are not able to even get some respite because they have no funding.”
This is not consistent across Canada, with some provinces creating exemptions to allow the influx of Ukrainians to access these supports. But Ontario and others are not doing so.
So far, Ontario has not budged on creating any such exceptions, Zur said.
“I almost feel like they are invisible to others. And when I meet with community leaders and representatives of our government, very frequently, I hear this is the first time they are altered to this issue,” she said.
In an email response provided by Zur to an MPP raising the issue, former PC minister Merrilee Fullerton(resigned March 27, 2023) said the government does offer emergency assistance to Ukrainian immigrants and allow some access to things like the Ontario Autism Program, although non-permanent residents cannot access all social services
The Ontario Autism Program has also had significant issues with waitlisting in recent years.
Group offers accessible programs in Newmarket
While volunteering for an organization called We Help Ukraine to GTA, Nina Bilnova wanted to support families coming from Ukraine, including those who have kids with special needs.
To that end, she helped kickstart a program providing art classes at the Newmarket Public Library. Over the past several months, the program has grown in popularity, causing them to open up multiple classes for newcomers of all kinds.
She described the challenges Ukrainians can have adapting and how classes like this can help.
“They can communicate and teach each other and create something beautiful, and so we decided to open this art class,” she said of the program.
Oleksangra Hrechyna was a teacher in Ukraine who came to Canada 10 months ago. She now helps teach arts and crafts through the program.
It offered her a chance to keep doing the things she loves, she said.
“Every day I meet new people,” she said of adapting to life in Canada. “I participate in some festivals, and my life is so bright, so interesting now.”
Kitrysh said she does appreciate how welcoming Canada is to those with autism, and she is glad to be in the country for that.
However, although she has been able to access some support through York Region, getting to any freely available programs has been a challenge with transportation.
She said she “understands the government has a lot of families and a lot of different problems” but hopes that children like hers can at least get access to speech therapy and applied behavioural analysis therapy.
“Absolutely necessary therapy,” she said. “These two therapies are the most important.”
