Free Autism Parenting Workshop in Stettler

Kitty will also be hosting a workship in Ponoka on May 13 – Click here to see the poster

Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is BJ, and I live in Red Deer. I moved back to the area about a year ago from the North Okanagan/Shuwap in BC.

I’d like to share some information with you about the Disability Tax Credit and the RDSP. My passion right now is to help anyone that can benefit have access to both of these programs. I have even started a Facebook group called Disability Tax Credit & RDSP (Canadians Only) in which I have offered my personal assistance in completing the forms. I do not charge a fee to help, and we currently have just below 400 members, some of whom have already been approved and have chosen to continue on to help others. I really just want people to access this and not be overwhelmed by the process. There are a few companies out there that will "help", but I feel that they are preying on the vulnerability of the disabled. Their fees are excessive, and they would like people to believe that they do a lot to earn that "cut" (20-30% of your return). I honestly feel that this money is much better invested into an RDSP than lining the pockets of people out to make an easy income on the backs of people with disabilities. And to be completely frank, I have seen how inadequately they complete the forms. It’s almost as though they want people to believe that this process is not one they could have handled on their own, and so they almost beg to have the CRA request clarification – all so that the client believes that everyone goes through this additional screening.

My goal is multifaceted:

1. I want to raise awareness of this tax credit and the RDSP so that people are aware of them and know what they entail.
2. I want to help people get approved..
3. I want young people (aged 49 and younger) to take advantage of the RDSP, since it does have an age cutoff at 50.

To achieve my goal, I aim to raise awareness among those in Alberta who don’t know where to start.

My goal is for people all across Canada with all different types of disabilities to benefit from these programs. I also have Type 1 Diabetes, which also qualifies for this tax credit, and that’s what originally got me involved in this advocacy. But people with ASD could potentially qualify as well, based on the criteria in "Mental Functions for Everyday Life" section. You can find the application form (T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate) on the CRA web site.

It seems overwhelming and daunting to have to describe the "effects of impairment" for conditions affecting the brain, but once you understand what they are looking for, it’s a bit clearer.

Under the "Mental Functions for Everyday Life" section, there are 3 subcategories: 1) Adaptive Functioning, 2) Memory, and 3) Problem Solving, Goal-Setting and Judgment. Under each of these three subcategories, there is a list of examples. When completing this form, under the "Effects of Impairment" section, you are asked to describe the effect your disability has on your life and your ability to perform tasks related to every day living. The key here, quite honestly, is to focus in on the examples they provide. For example, if "tasks related to self-care" is a challenge under Adaptive Functioning, then it would be helpful to explain what that entails. For some, it would be requiring something, like prompting for tasks related to grooming. The requirements are similar for Memory and for Problem-Solving, Goal-Setting and Judgment. For the last category, all three must be present.

Finally, you need to have your T2201 form signed by a relevant professional. It can be any Medical Doctor – it doesn’t have to be a specialist – or a relevant professional for the category listed in the form. As of March 22, 2017, a nurse-practitioner can sign the form, as well.

If this is something you haven’t pursued before, or if you have been previously denied and are willing to try again, feel free to join the Facebook group for help. You can apply for the Disability Tax Credit at any point through the year, but with tax time coming to a close, my hope is that now might be a good time to start getting it together. The CRA will go back 10 years and reassess, so even if you have missed out on knowing about this in past years, you can still get the benefit as though you’ve had it all this time. From there, the next step (provided you are under 49) is to set up an RDSP, but that could be a topic for another article.

Henson Trusts and Your Child’s Future

Deborah Barrett

We’ve all spent sleepless nights wondering how our children with autism will survive when they are inevitably without us. One of the things that limits their possibilities of maintaining a good life is the very restrictive nature of Assured Income for the Severely Disabled (AISH). Since 1989, adults with severe disabilities in Alberta have been restricted to keeping assets of no more than $100,000, a house they live in, and a car. They and their families may also contribute up to $200,000 in a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP), which the province cannot claw back. (But money cannot be taken out of RDSPs until the adult reaches the age of 60.) For some families, this may seem like a lot of money, but for others, who may want to leave their adult child more in terms of assets, it is a challenge. No one wants to leave their child assets that the government will claw back or force them to spend, so that they can return to life on AISH at the princely sum of $1588/month.

MLA for Calgary Currie Brian Malkinson has brought forth a private member’s bill re-establishing Henson Trusts in Alberta. Henson Trusts are considered absolute discretionary trusts. This means they cannot be left to the person with the severe disability directly, so they cannot be deemed his or her asset. Instead, they are left in a trust, and the appointed trustee can use the funds to improve the quality of life of the beneficiary of the trust (our sons or daughters). This means that if the dishwasher in a severely disabled person’s home suddenly breaks beyond repair, the trustee can purchase a new dishwasher and that money cannot be counted against his or her AISH funds. Depending upon the amount in the Henson Trust, it could mean little things every month that improve the individual’s quality of life – a better diet, a better place to live, better clothing, more activities, courses, travel – whatever contributes to a better life for the individual.

In short, Brian Malkinson’s private member’s bill can make a world of difference for adults with severe disabilities in Alberta. If you have an opportunity to let your MLA know what a big difference this will make to your family, knowing that you can make you son or daughter’s life more secure after you are gone, do so. Let your MLA know that you are very much in support of this bill and that it will make a difference to every severely disabled individual and every family of a person with severe disabilities across this province.

For a more succinct and informative discussion of Brian Malkinson’s bill, please see John Seigner’s article below.

Henson Trust Legislation in Alberta

John Seigner

Brian Malkinson, MLA for Calgary Currie, has sponsored a private members’ bill in the Alberta Legislature to allow for Henson Trusts in Alberta. A Henson Trust is used to hold an inheritance for the benefit of a handicapped individual, without affecting their eligibility for income support programs like Alberta Income Support for the Handicapped (AISH). Alberta remains the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not allow for this type of discretionary Henson Trust. The trusts were originally made possible in 1989 by the Supreme Court of Ontario, when it ruled that trust assets were not vested in the beneficiary and thus could not be used to terminate government benefit programs.

Currently a limit of $100K can be held in a trust, and any income over $800 per month flowing to the beneficiary would affect their AISH payments. However, a trust can be used to hold assets and purchase services and support for beneficiaries. Individuals can also invest up to $200K in their RDSP, as well as in ownership of a vehicle and a home they live in, all of which are exempt from AISH clawback.

Malkinson has had consulting meetings in Calgary and Edmonton which were very well-attended. The attendees included Wild Rose MLA Leela Aheer, who committed to bringing the bill before her caucus for support. After consultation, the Parliamentary Counsel’s office will draft legislation, and there will be another round of consultation with the public before it comes to the legislature.

We Want to Hear From You!

Creepy By Any Other Name

Growing up in Edmonton, I was accustomed to people acting uncomfortable around me. As I transitioned from being a violent child with serious impulse control issues to an awkward-but-harmless adolescent, people no longer had to physically restrain me. They did, however, have to deal with the elephant in the room – how to interact with someone who made them uncomfortable with his mere presence. Whether it was my aversion to eye contact, my awkward body language, my monotone voice, or my odd way with words, there was something about me that made them feel profoundly uneasy. Sometimes they would just search for a discreet excuse to break away from our conversation as quickly as possible. On rare occasions, they would be less polite, and would throw the "C" word my way: creepy. And of course, it hurt – terribly.

It took me a long time to realize that I had a powerful tool at my disposal to dispel people’s discomfort: disclosure. Especially in recent years, as Asperger’s and high-functioning autism have, frankly, become hip, just saying the words "I have Asperger’s Syndrome" can replace people’s discomfort with a kind of awed fascination and curiousity. On a good day, I might even meet an attractive woman with a long-time crush on Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, and my disclosure will be met with a million well-intentioned questions. Disclosing in these low-stakes social settings seems like an easy way to earn brownie points, but I don’t do it as much as I could. Partly it just doesn’t occur to me – when I’m in the middle of a social situation, I can rarely think straight. Sometimes I think it’s none of their damn business. And sometimes, I just can’t handle the condescension.

It’s silly, really. With a few words, I go from being some random creep to being a fascinating puzzle – perhaps with some amazing talent just waiting to be discovered. Or I become a very mildly disabled individual who needs to be coddled just a little bit – don’t worry, he’s just a bit different – he has Asperger’s.

But in a way it’s all silly, isn’t it? It’s not just autism that is a spectrum – humanity is. I know it’s a cliche, but we’re all weird in our own way. Labels might be useful for treating and accommodating certain conditions, but they shouldn’t create some artificial dividing line between people who are "normal", people who are disabled, and people who are just plain weird. There’s the temptation to use my diagnosis as a "get out of jail free" card – to receive special treatment that I don’t really need. But with all of the severe impairments that exist among the genuinely disabled, it feels like a cheat. If I do have any impairment, it’s that some people react negatively to the way I present myself – and that might be more their disability than mine. I’m also aware that labeling your problems away is not a luxury that exists for people who don’t have a trendy diagnosis to name-drop – for those who are merely creepy. I only hope that all of us – including me – can try to muster some compassion for the unique challenges that every human being faces, from the severely impaired to the merely quirky, and even the "normal" people who still have their own hardships to endure. The challenges we face may not be equal, but we all deserve the chance to be understood and loved as individuals.

Downtown Edmonton is looking very different these days, different from how I remember it being even five years ago when I first moved here. There are some new storefronts, some new restaurants, a few new towers added to the skyline, just as many old mainstays have faded or vanished from the city centre. The biggest, shiniest jewel in the refurbished crown of Edmontonian nightlife would have to be the new arena — massive and monumental, gaudy and glamorous in turn.
 

It’s a nice arena, as far as I can tell. (I haven’t been, honestly. I’m not much for sports spectating, though I’m sure it has its charms as a pastime.) It is, I have been told, an important part of the city’s revitalization project for the downtown core. Just as Rogers Place is a nice arena, “revitalization” is a nice, nice word. A nice idea. Unfortunately, the niceness of it all can hide a rather ugly reality.
 

Prior to the past few years, downtown was a locus of life for, alongside hipsters and yuppies and government grunts and corporate professionals, Edmonton’s often bedraggled homeless population — a group often vulnerable in a number of ways, including through disability and mental illness. It’s no accident that street people congregated there — a relatively abundant if yet scarce supply of food, transportation, public toilets, and shelter are to be found in the city centre. The kind of charitable and governmental services that provide what merger support exists for the homeless are often found there.
 

Unfortunately, the kind of people who spend lots of money on trendy boutiques and chic restaurants and tickets to the theatre and the big game don’t much like sharing space with grubby homeless people, unpredictable and odd as they can be. So along with the the boutiques, the restaurants, and the arenas comes a massive police presence on behalf of the rich and the afraid to ward off the vulnerable and the strange.
 

Many have mentioned how nice it is to walk down the street without being waylaid by some vagrant asking for change — and I bet that it is — but few have wondered where it is that vagrant went. If she is hungry. If she is cold. If she has a safe place to sleep tonight. It is as if when we cannot see suffering, that it is simply gone. No matter that the ejection of the homeless population from the city centre was not accompanied by any increased effort to care for the mentally ill and destitute. Recently, in fact, local medical facilities have closed several beds allocated to mental health services.
 

As many of you will know, homelessness is an all too common fate for autistic people who fall through the wide holes left in a social safety net woven by those who have never experienced need, never experienced true fear, and thus fail to foresee how it might fray and snap and abandon those who need it most — those who live in a world of sudden, unpredictable violence and constant want.
 

When we say that we no longer want to see a problem — rather than that we want to see concrete solutions to that problem — the path of least resistance is often to push the unpleasantness of the world to the corners and crawl-spaces where nobody with any power will see it. It is often the impulse of decision makers with an insufficient understanding of the issue and limited resources to do whatever it takes to make the problem go away, regardless of whether or not the issue has truly been solved for the people it directly affects.
 

This is why it is important when we ask for change that we are direct, specific, and dedicated. We must be ever aware of how ineffective policies may be hiding the true extent of a problem rather than solving it — and ask ourselves who isn’t being included in the conversation because they have been relegated to the margins of society. We can never forget that the strange and the different are far too easy not to care about, and we must demand that their dignity and their rights be taken into account by the powers that be.

Introducing the #GetToKnow Project and #YEGWAAD

Autism Edmonton and Adarius 4 Autism are proud to launch the #GetToKnow Project: A joint initiative to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The #GetToKnow project is an interactive and informative presentation designed to be shared with students in Grades 4-12, and includes a full video and #GetToKnow Guide for educators to run the activities in their classroom or school. The #GetToKnow Guide includes the exercise descriptions as well as talking points for teachers to facilitate a conversation about autism with their students following each activity.

The #GetToKnow project is fully portable in design, and the perfect activity for teachers in rural settings to run with their students to learn more about autism. We are challenging all schools in Alberta to get out there and #GetToKnow someone with autism!

Watch the full video and download the #GetToKnow Guide at www.autismedmonton.org/GetToKnow.

For those of us in the autism community, every day is autism awareness day – but we are still happy to celebrate the opportunity to promote awareness and acceptance. World Autism Awareness Day was held on April 2 and Autism Edmonton held a unique event we called #YEGWAAD!

#YEGWAAD was an event organized by our Social Action Committee, a group of young adult volunteers with Autism Spectrum Disorder who plan and host fundraising events to support young adult programming at Autism Edmonton. The work of this committee provides an opportunity for young adults on the autism spectrum to contribute to the community, and learn marketable skills that contribute to building their resume.

The event was held at The Empress Ale House and featured four local and talented musicians as well a silent auction and coffee sales. This successful inaugural event raised $1500 that will go back into the next project for the Social Action Committee and programs for young adults, and with local media coverage, also helped to raised awareness about Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Edmonton would like to acknowledge the efforts of the committee members for a job well done: Matthew Boudreau, Samantha Lyons, Michelle Coupland and staff advisor, Matthew Kay.