{"id":958,"date":"2007-04-23T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2007\/04\/massachusetts-autism-alert\/"},"modified":"2007-04-23T15:37:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-23T15:37:00","slug":"massachusetts-autism-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2007\/04\/massachusetts-autism-alert\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Autism Alert"},"content":{"rendered":"

This message is for any of my Massachusetts readers. Please act to expand the Division of Autism<\/span> in our state. If you are not in Massachusetts, feel free to take this text and push your own Legislature to designate a <\/span>Division of Autism<\/span>, separate from the Department of Mental Retardation, for better services for people with autism, if there is not one already. If you read my blog because of autism, you should be very familiar with your state reps and state senators by now, and they should roll their eyes when they hear it is you on the phone. Being this kind of pain in the ass is the only way to keep autism services on the front burner. <\/span><\/p>\n

URGENT AFAM (Advocates for Autism Massachusetts) ALERT<\/p>\n

CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE TODAY<\/p>\n

Ask your Representative to support House Budget Amendment #1159
To increase funding for the Division of Autism<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives is voting on the State Budget for next year. The budget currently proposes level funding for the Division of Autism, despite the fact that the number of children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (\u201cASD\u201d) continues to climb at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

Rep. Barbara L\u2019Italien filed House Budget Amendment #1159 to increase funding for the Division of Autism to $5 million. It is crucial for the Division of Autism to receive additional funding in order to address the needs of families of children with ASD. <\/p>\n

Additional funding for the Division of Autism will: <\/p>\n

? Help newly diagnosed families access resources and available treatment<\/p>\n

? Provide behavioral, social and communication services and programs necessary to support children with autism ages 0-18 in the community<\/p>\n

? Expand the Autism and Law Enforcement Education Coalition (“ALEC”) program statewide to provide more training for police, firefighters, EMTs and other public safety officials to help them recognize the signs of autism and effectively respond in emergency situations
? Offer job-training programs and independent living skill classes for teen-agers with autism<\/p>\n

If you believe the Division of Autism needs more funding to better serve children with ASD, here is what you can do:
IMMEDIATELY call your state representative<\/span> at 617-722-2000 and say you support House Budget Amendment #1159 which increases funding for the Division of Autism to $5 million. If you are not sure who your representative is, call your city hall or visit www.wheredoIvotema.com)
Let your Representative know how important this funding is for your family.
\u00ff Provide examples of services and programs your child has received after-school, weekends, school vacations and the importance of these services.
\u00ff Equally important, give examples of services your child needs but has been unable to obtain and the harmful impact.
If you have time to make additional calls, please call Rep. Robert DeLeo, Chair of House Ways and Means (617-722-2990), and Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi (617-722-2500) in support of House Budget Amendment # 1159.<\/p>\n

For further information, contact Ann Guay at 781-891-6270 x102 or guay@AFAMaction.org<\/p>\n

Sponsored by: Advocates for Autism Massachusetts (AFAM), Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, Asperger\u2019s Association of New England, Autism Alliance of MetroWest, Inc., Autism Resource Center of Central Massachusetts, Autism Society of America, Massachusetts Chapter, Autism Support Center, Till\/Boston Families for Autism, Inc., Community Autism Resources, Inc, Community Resources for People with Autism, Family Autism Center, The ARC of Massachusetts, Autism Speaks and Massachusetts Advocates for Children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This message is for any of my Massachusetts readers. Please act to expand the Division of Autism in our state. If you are not in Massachusetts, feel free to take this text and push your own Legislature to designate a Division of Autism, separate from the Department of Mental Retardation, for better services for people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-fs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}