2023-07-13 08:59:36
A mother from the Acadian Peninsula sends out a heartfelt cry on behalf of her 18-year-old autistic son. Short of resources, she had him hospitalized almost a year ago and is still looking for an alternative.
The hens cackle and get excited as Émilie Savoie approaches. Under a blazing July sun, she cracks soda crackers in the chicken coop located in the backyard of her house in Pokemouche.
That’s Nicolas’ project. His dear hens. He loves chickens. It calms him down, it gives him a responsibility. He liked it to feed them, she explains.
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Émilie Savoie has just collected eggs laid by her son Nicolas’ chickens.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pascal Raiche-Nogue
Nicolas is his youngest son. He is 18 years old and has autism spectrum disorder. He can express himself and play, but he has a significant developmental delay.
I started to be afraid
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Émilie Savoie with her son Nicolas. He is now 18 years old and has been hospitalized since August 2022.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Courtesy: Émilie Savoie
As a teenager, he exhibited increasingly violent behavior at home. A challenge for Émilie Savoie, who is far from being built like a mirrored wardrobe.
I will love her all the time. But that changed [et] I started to be afraid. Because he had become big, strong. He could break things.
For the past few years, she has struggled to find a solution to keep herself and her son safe.
Nicolas was placed in a care facility in the Acadian Peninsula. After a few months, he came home emaciated and unhappy, according to his mother.
He was also hospitalized for some time at the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst. These experiences were inconclusive and left a bitter taste in Émilie Savoie.
At home, the situation became untenable.
He was getting violent. A “no” could attack him. He could have a fit, punch, throw things, she explains.
I said, “You’re going to help me, I can’t keep it anymore”
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Émilie Savoie wants at all costs a solution that would allow her to get her son out of the hospital.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pascal Raiche-Nogue
In August 2022, she reluctantly decided to have him hospitalized again.
I took it to Campbellton. I said, “You’re going to help me, I can’t keep him anymore, it could be dangerous. It could be dangerous for me, it could be dangerous for him”.
Since then, Émilie Savoie continues to seek a solution so that he can leave the hospital. But his efforts and his requests to the provincial government have not yet borne fruit.
Nicolas is still hospitalized in psychiatry, almost a year later.
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Emilie Savoie’s son, Nicolas, has autism spectrum disorder. He can play and express himself, but has a developmental delay and needs support.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Courtesy: Émilie Savoie
According to Émilie Savoie, he must stay in his room and is sometimes tied up. He calls her several times a day, often crying. He asks her to get him out of there. A situation that saddens him and makes him feel guilty.
The only thing he has left for hope is me. That’s what hurts me. And I can’t give him that. I am his mother. I’m supposed to protect him, she said, tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat.
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Campbellton Regional Hospital
Photo : Radio-Canada
She also alleges that the hospital recently banned her from visiting her son because she threatened to complain about the way a staff member treated her son.
The hope of a personalized plan for Nicolas
On more than one occasion over the past three years, Émilie Savoie has been supported by a Moncton psychologist, Suzanne Durepos-Forcier.
She intervened in the case for the first time in October 2020, at the request of the New Brunswick Department of Social Development.
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Psychologist Suzanne Durepos-Forcier knows Nicolas’ case well. She has intervened with him and his family on more than one occasion since 2020.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Pascal Raiche-Nogue
We did a combination of remote, virtual interventions. We practiced with the employees [du centre où il était hébergé]. I met the family, the youngster. And when I could, I traveled to the location to work with him, explains Suzanne Durepos-Forcier in an interview.
She tried to determine if it was possible to set up a personalized intervention plan in the Acadian Peninsula. However, it turned out to be difficult.
We had discussions to try to find employees, support people in the Peninsula. It was very difficult – almost impossible – to find [suffisamment de personnel formé en intervention auprès des personnes autistes].
With the family’s agreement, she turned her attention to the three major cities in the South, where there is more infrastructure and organizations that offer support services. A first personalized plan was proposed in 2022.
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The second personalized plan would have been implemented in the Moncton area, had it been accepted. (File photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Patrick Lacelle
I sent a plan. For reasons that have not been explained to me, this plan did not work. And in January 2023, I was asked to send a more detailed proposal for intense services this time, says Suzanne Durepos-Forcier.
A second plan, providing for Nicolas to be housed in a house or apartment in the Moncton area as well as services 24 hours a day – in order to develop his skills and reduce his aggressive behavior – was developed and proposed to the government. in February 2023.
We don’t want it to be permanent. The long-term objective is for the young person to be able to return home, or return to live with their family.
Émilie Savoie reports that this second plan was refused a few days ago and that the Ministry of Social Development did not give her a reason for this refusal.
A case that is not isolated
Suzanne Durepos-Forcier, who works extensively with people with autism spectrum disorder, says other New Brunswick families are struggling to find the resources they need.
Among other things for young adults with autism who are no longer in the school system.
Maybe it’s a minority of the population that has complex needs. But it’s important to make people aware of the fact that they exist. They are there, even if we don’t often talk about them or see them. They have the right to effective, specialized intervention services to help them flourish, to develop a quality of life, she says.
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