Poor little cameron.. Something needs to be done.. Don' they see that he would do so much better with a loving family . I wish i can take him and love him.. That is what he needs..
SUE NEALES
Chief reporter
October 19, 2007 01:00am
Cam, as he is universally known by his carers, has never known a happy family life.
Left by his mother at the Lutana Disability Services respite care centre when not quite two, the young boy, later diagnosed as autistic by local pediatrician Dr Ian Stewart, has lived there ever since.
The Lutana centre is only supposed to be used by severely disabled and disturbed children and adults whose carers and families need a few days' relief.
Yet this little boy has been living there for five years full time, despite having no obvious physical or intellectual disabilities.
That is five years of being cared for by seven different staff in a 24-hour period. Five years of trying to attune to and cope with the seven or eight other children who might be visiting the centre, most with extreme anti-social behaviours.
And despite his long stint, Cameron has no permanent bedroom. He often has to move to accommodate other respite visitors.
He has no long-term friends, little access to outdoor playing space, and had only been outside Lutana for a few excursions until starting school at Bowen Road Primary in Moonah last year.
His mother, who continues to battle drug problems, visits infrequently.
As a consequence, Cameron's behaviour has deteriorated to the point where it is now no longer possible to tell what is due to autism and what is the result of his inappropriate imprisonment behind locked doors in the Lutana respite centre.
It's been a situation that has gone on for so long, and become so harmful to Cameron, that Dr Stewart and one of the boy's devoted carers at Lutana, Phillip Carr, were last year prompted to complain to Health Services Minister Lara Giddings.
Dr Stewart wrote to tell her that a child like Cameron should not be living at the centre.
"I just wanted to express concern that a boy like Cam doesn't have a normal family to live with," Dr Stewart said yesterday.
"So I decided to represent Cam last year (to the Minister) on the basis that he shouldn't still be at the centre; that he needs to move on."
Dr Stewart, who last assessed Cameron's behaviour and autism in 2006, accepts that Cameron would be difficult to include in a foster family.
He also has almost sympathy for the difficulties faced by parents like his mother, who find it impossible to cope with an autistic child.
"But a long time has gone by and I do feel there should have been more recognition (by Disability Services managers) that he needed a placement in a long-term family who would look after him," Dr Stewart said.
"It's hard not to conclude that some of the reason that Cam is still at Lutana is because of a degree of (bureaucratic) inertia."
Another desperately concerned about Cameron's predicament and shocking circumstances is devoted Lutana centre staff member, Phillip Carr.
Mr Carr has worked at Lutana as a carer to disabled people since just after Cameron was first brought there for what staff thought was a short-term stay.
Since it became clearer to Mr Carr that Cameron would be the centre's only permanent resident, and when he realised the boy was only mildly autistic, he said he grew deeply disturbed about his prolonged incarceration.
"It was just so sad," Mr Carr said yesterday from his home in Primrose Sands.
"It seemed to me that here was a very young child with very minimal autism, who was being asked to take in such a lot, with the only people he was seeing either staff or children who were profoundly disabled with no verbal communication skills."
Mr Carr is certain that when Cameron arrived at Lutana aged almost two, he could already say a few words. (However Dr Stewart's notes from those early days record that the boy was essentially non-communicative).
But since that time, Cameron has lost all ability to speak. Yet staff were able to teach him sign language, and he can understand everything that is said to him.
When Cameron went on his first holiday last year, after Mr Carr and other staff pushed for him to attend an out-of-Lutana school holiday program, he played with other children for the first time and started speaking some words clearly again.
Just as heart-breaking is the story of what happened when Cameron first mastered sign language. "He just sat on the floor singing and asking where his mummy was," Mr Carr said.
On November 8 last year, Mr Carr had had enough.
He wrote to Ms Giddings too, asking that something be done urgently for Cameron.
"I am writing to inform you officially of a case of institutional abuse in your department's respite centre (at) Lutana," Mr Carr wrote.
"After observing Cameron's situation I feel my experience and my professional position demand me to write this plea on his behalf.
"Children need appropriate role models to develop social skills, language and emotional stability – and respite care does not offer these role models.
"Staff feel frustrated for Cameron, a child who has shown so much potential, but potential that cannot be exercised or developed there."
Mr Carr concluded by asking for a speedy resolution to the situation, pointing out that the department was doing Cameron a great disservice by forcing him to stay at Lutana with no prospect of being placed in a loving foster family.
After hearing no response from Ms Giddings, Mr Carr contacted Liberal leader Will Hodgman.
In January this year, Mr Hodgman also wrote to Ms Giddings appealing for intervention.
"It is not acceptable for this little boy to remain in a respite centre simply because no one is willing to advocate for him," Mr Hodgman wrote.
"If his mother is unwilling or unable to care for Cameron, this child should have the opportunity to be fostered into a normal home environment instead of spending his formative years in a disabled respite centre."
On March 21, Ms Giddings replied, indicating she hoped action could be taken soon to place the boy in a foster home.
She said up until that point, four years after Cameron was first left at Lutana, the department had continued to concentrate on efforts to have the boy's mother take him back.
But nothing has changed in Cameron's situation since March.
Yesterday in State Parliament, Mr Hodgman went public with the shocking story for the first time.
"Really, I'm sick of trying to do this the nice way," a frustrated Mr Hodgman said.
He asked Ms Giddings how it was possible a small boy had been left to languish in such a clearly inappropriate place for so long.
"How can you explain why a six-year-old boy has been forced to live in a respite centre in Hobart since the time he was left there by his family as a two-year-old because they could not cope with his autism?" Mr Hodgman demanded.
"Are you aware that for four long years this child, rather than having a family to care for him, usually has seven different rostered staff looking after him each day?
"Are you aware that for four years the role models he has had are clients with extreme anti-social behaviours, who usually only stay a few days and then move on?
"Are you aware, despite your telling us earlier in the year (by letter) that alternatives to the respite centre must be sought as a matter of priority for this child, that as of last night he was still stuck there, and that one of his previous carers has described this as a case of imprisonment and institutionalised abuse that he does not deserve?
"Doesn't this shocking case of a child who has been stuck in a home for people with disabilities, without even a foster family to care for him, underscore the urgent need for a much fairer Tasmania with better access to services and support for disadvantaged groups such as children with autism?"
Ms Giddings told Parliament yesterday she would not comment on individual cases under her care.
Late yesterday afternoon, Mark Byrne, the Tasmanian director of the Children and Family Services division in Ms Giddings' Health and Human Services Department, admitted the way Cameron had been dealt with was substandard.
"The department accepts that the delay in finding a suitable family placement for a seven-year-old Hobart boy in a disability respite placement for the past four years is not good enough," Mr Byrne said
He said now the department had (finally) concluded Cameron could not return to his family, an appropriate foster placement with another Hobart family was being progressed as a "matter of urgency".
"A more responsive approach to the needs of children with special care requirements has been identified as a priority for Children and Family Services and Disability Services," Mr Byrne concluded.
For Mr Carr, who has since quit working at Lutana out of sheer frustration, the blaze of publicity was all for the boy's good.
"I believe when Cameron walks out that door and into a really good foster family he will change so much that he will be almost a normal little boy for the first time in his life," Mr Carr said.
Heart breaking, He needs legal counsel. I don't understand why the Mothers rights have not been taken away yet. If he is put into foster care I can only pray he goes to a good family that will love him unconditionally.
As a mother I find it impossible to understand why anyone would continue to let their children suffer for their own selfish needs(be that drugs,friends,whatever)
This poor poor little boy. People make me sick.
Poor kid! Something should have been done to strip the parental rights of that "mother" so that this kid could have had a chance. Hopefully something will happen, and SOON, before it's too late for this child.