Officials gathered at North Bay City Hall this morning to mark World Autism Awareness Day with a flag raising.

Linda Peacock of the Northeast Chapter of Autism Ontario says stress and mental health issues are the major concerns of parents who have children on the Autism Spectrum.

“The mental health piece is not given enough attention. The mental health arena is not receiving enough funding here in the north,” she says.

She says a major issue is the lack of specialists compared to the south.

Peacock says there are 300 children in the chapter who are on the spectrum and yet way less than half 114 or 115 on average are receiving services at any given time.

She says autism funding has been in the news for several weeks. She sees that as a positive with more parents speaking out about some of the funding concerns.

“The more that people speak up brings increased attention in the north, in the south and at Queen’s Park. The more that voices are being heard brings more push on the issue,” Peacock says.

Filed under: flag-raising, world-autism-awareness-day