Sudbury family had to send their autistic 8-year-old five hours away just to get her help. ‘We can’t do this by ourselves anymore

By October, Suzanne had reached her breaking point. Months of pushing through extreme exhaustion while caring for her eight-year-old daughter, Aliah, had wrecked her mental health. Bills were piling up and she and her husband, Bob, were at risk of losing their Sudbury home. On a Friday afternoon in late October, Suzanne called her local children’s aid society and asked the agency to take Aliah away. Unable to find a live-in centre in the region that could support Aliah’s complex needs, the agency placed her in Mississauga — more than 400 kilometres from her family.