‘There’s just no options:’ Mother struggling to find care for daughter with autism

A Saskatchewan mom has gained a huge following on social media chronicling her journey as a parent.

And now, she wants the provincial government to take action by improving access to health and child care.

Jill Kakoske lives in Rosthern with her daughter Evie. In January they lost their family doctor and pediatrician.

Last week, Kakoske was at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building to talk about the challenges she faced while trying to find care for Evie, who has autism, a sleep disorder, and two eating disorders.

“Tell me how I can pay for a family doctor. Tell me how I can pay for a pediatrician,” Kakoske said. “What I was actually spending my individualized funding on was inclusive child care.”

Kakoske said she was told the contract for the child-care worker was terminated due to a lack of adequate funding from the provincial government to support Evie’s complex needs.

She called the entire situation a perfect storm.

“The daycare was short-staffed basically and so there was a really challenging week due to staff turnover that ended up (leading to them) terminating a contract, basically a week after that happened,” she said.

“With (the doctors), one closed practice as a family doctor to leave and work in an emergency room. The pediatrician went on maternity leave and isn’t sure if she’s even going to come back to practice. So neither of them could forward our files on to anyone.”

Kakoske said her family initially moved to Rosthern because Evie was denied a spot in a pre-k program in Martensville where they had lived before.

Kakoske has amassed more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and more than 10,000 on Facebook.

“I basically am connected with literally people from all over different countries and I’ve learned about what supports are there, how they access them, what their red tape is, and try to help them through the process of figuring out how they can access services there,” Kakoske said.

“My inbox is filled right now with people who are absolutely floored that I don’t have a family doctor (and) that my daughter doesn’t have a pediatrician. The misconception is: Isn’t health care free in Canada? And so people are literally confused about why we don’t have these services.”

Last week, Health Minister Paul Merriman said that he understood Kakoske’s concerns but couldn’t speak to Evie’s specific needs. He also said he recognized there are some challenges within the system.

“I would say that we’re working on those challenges with the health-care providers, with doctors, with administrators in the (Saskatchewan Health Authority), and also with frontline health-care providers to be able to improve services,” Merriman said.

“It’s about bringing more people in and it’s also about expanding the scope of the people that are there (so) that they can do more and it’s looking at where we need to expand our services into specific areas to be able to meet the needs. If there’s an emerging need in a specific community, then we have to look at that.”

When asked again about the situation of the Kakoske family, Merriman mentioned the possibility of bringing in a locum, a separate doctor, or a nurse practitioner.

Kakoske said her family might need to move again to accommodate their needs.

“There are just no options there for us anymore,” she said.