Mother of autistic child needs help
Published:Friday | February 17, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Barrington Flemming, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
FOR THE last six years, 36-year-old Gillian Whyte, who resides in Montego Bay, St James, has been waging a one-woman crusade to muster support for her nine-year-old autistic daughter Alicia Williams.
Whyte first began to suspect that something was wrong with her daughter when at the age of two, she had not started talking, merely making sounds and throwing herself violently to the ground.
She took young Alicia to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where she was examined by a doctor at the paediatric clinic. After quizzing Whyte about the history of the child, the doctor made a referral for her to be taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) to be analysed by specialists.
Painful news
At the UHWI, the doctor who examined Alicia gave Whyte the news, which was unexpected and extremely painful to accept.
"The doctor said she has a severe case of autism. That news was devastating. My little girl is able to hear you, but she does not respond as a normal child would."
"She does not speak and has to wear diapers, as she does not have control of herself," continued Whyte. "I am seeking help. I need assistance. I am not working, so it is very difficult to cope. I have tried getting the children's officer at the Child Development Agency office in Montego Bay) to place her in a home or school ... she responded and came to see me, but it's months now and I have not heard or seen anything."
Whyte, who is unemployed and is the mother of two other young children, is worried about the suitability of raising her autistic daughter in the unsuitable conditions under which she lives at her tenement-yard home on King Street in Montego Bay.
"The yard is open and we don't have proper facilities. We still have to use a pit latrine," noted Whyte. "I would like to have her enrolled in an institution so I could get a job and be better able to take care of her and her brothers. I have taken her to the Learning Centre, (formerly the School of Hope), but they have refused to accept her because she has to be wearing diapers."
Joan Hadden of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities told The Gleaner that she was aware of the case and has had some interaction with Whyte about starting a self-sustaining project.
However, Whyte's preference at this time would be to seek employment as a waitress or sales clerk, but she cannot, because of the situation with her daughter.