GREAT BAY – A mother who has struggled for years with her autistic son, is calling on government to acknowledge that there is a problem with autism on the island and to develop a policy to assist parents dealing with this issue.
Today published Ingrid Nadal-Rombley’s story last Friday about her struggles of dealing with her autistic son, how she lost her job when she took leave of absence to help deal with her son’s condition in Holland and the apathy by St. Maarten and education authorities towards her.
“Government has to acknowledge that this is a problem, that it is growing and acknowledge it publicly,” she said. “They have to see it as their priority. My son, when I look at him now, the sacrifice was very, very big for me personally. I lost a lot because I put my whole life on the line, my career, my marriage, everything I put on hold for this child,” she said.
Nadal-Rombley traveled with her son to Holland for several years for him to get help because she was not getting any assistance locally. She said when she got to the Netherlands, the professionals there told her she almost got there too late because if her son was a bit older, there would be little they could do to help him. She is also calling for more awareness about autism on the island for both parents struggling with the children who have the condition, but also for people who do not know how to interact with autistic children.
That awareness she noted should be passed down to the schools as some teachers do not know how to help autistic children. “The police force must know how to deal with somebody with autism. They might arrest somebody or call somebody to stop and based on their strange reaction the police might arrest them and abuse them. If they understand what autism is and how to deal with it then they would have a different approach to them. So awareness has to happen in the community,” she said.
In Friday’s article, Nadal-Rombley lamented how schools on St. Maarten refused to accept her son because of his condition. Additionally, the school that supposedly was designed for this, the Prins Willem Alexander School is not fully equipped to cater to autistic children, according to Nadal-Rombley’s research.
In a passionate plea, Nadal-Rombley also appealed to fathers of autistic children to play a more active role in their lives. She noted that in all the cases she has seen like herself, it is mostly mothers who have taken on the role of helping their autistic children. The fathers are nowhere to be found. “They have to accept their responsibility, because it’s both parents created that child so both should be there,” Nadal-Rombley said.
It’s Nadal-Rombley’s dream to have a foundation set up on St. Maarten to help parents deal with autism, organize workshops to help parents with autistic children and to lobby government and Parliament to allow access to AVZB funds to help deal with the challenges of autism on St. Maarten.
Click here to read the story Today first published about Nadal-Rombley’s experiences.
