Call for help: Janine Roberts with daughter Stephanie.
ERIN PEARSON
Lara’s Janine Roberts lives in daily fear of her children vanishing.
“You’re always listening for a door to click. You feel violently ill at the time.”
“There’s nothing you can do to prevent these kids from escaping.”
Ms Roberts is among thousands of Victorian parents with autistic children.
She has added her voice to calls for State Government to fund a GPS bracelet program to track down autistic children when they go missing.
The calls have grown louder since an autistic six-year-old boy wandered from his home and was hit and killed by a train in Geelong last week.
“We live in a virtual prison,” Ms Roberts said.
“We’ve had alarms on all doors, we’ve had extensions on all the fences, all in the fear that my three children could bolt.
“There’s technology out there so families could track missing kids with mobile phones or internet connections, but there’s no dedicated system in Victoria.”
One in 160 Australian children have autism, the nation’s most widespread developmental disorder.
Ms Roberts recalled her own children’s disappearances.
“I went to the toilet once and Stephanie jumped an eight foot-fence when she was just eight-years-old.”
Rosemary Malone, the chief of Geelong disability support provider Gateways, said GPS devices could be useful for families with wandering autistic children, although not all wandered.
“If a person has an interest in water or a particular thing and they focus on reaching that sometimes they’re not aware of the danger involved,” she said.
Community Services Minster Mary Wooldridge said she would investigate funding the program.
“On Saturday during a rally for World Autism Awareness Day I met with a number of Geelong parents and discussed options to ensure the safety of children with autism. I have requested further information.”
