Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
This is the 14th article in a series focusing on the fact that Autism is a social issue that could have been, and should have been, solved a long time ago.
As you already know, I don’t leave “Autism Leaders” alone. If they want to call themselves leaders than they need to lead. They need to have a plan (one they can SHOW the world), and they actually need to be moving in a problem solving direction.
After my last newsletter on this subject I got invited to some, sort of, secret meetings – a group putting together a real plan. And, out of these meetings came results.
What were those meetings? They were an Autism Think Tank, made up, primarily, of top grade, well known in their field, health professionals and real Autism Leaders.. They have met, so far, thirteen times. Their focus is on answering the Autism question “How do we fix the children and the parents?” Their goal has been to devise, and to put into clear language, the process by which parents of autistic children can unravel the damage done to their children and reverse it – and make that information easily, and readily, available to parents. They weren’t there to argue the politics of it – they just want to fix the problem – child by child, and parent by parent
I sat there though two of those Think Tank sessions, listening, carefully, to what they had to say. And I was impressed. And I am not easily impressed – especially by so-called “Autism Leadership.”
This was not a group, like Generation Rescue, which has degenerated into an all-out promotion of Jenny McCarthy’s latest breast implants. Nor is it another TACA (Talk About Curing Autism) which, to me, is no more than a thinly disguised Sales Force for $24,000 Hyperbaric units for a near starving Autism family’s living room. In my mind, neither of these groups deserves a seat at the Autism Leadership table.
Don’t even start me talking about Autism Squeaks (Autism Speaks) and their secretly contributed to them – 60 million dollars per year which results in them NOT talking about what’s really going on in Autism. Go ahead and guess where that secret 60 mil is coming from…
This group, the Think Tank (and they have not given their combined project a name), is looking at the Autism Spectrum, taking it apart step-by-step, breaking it into its components, and devising common sense, medically sound, answers to the whole question – Things parents can do anytime of the day or night. They are offering way more than “hope.” Way more.
And I was impressed… Yes I was.
In the Background…
My last article on this subject “Big Shakeup… The Autism Community is Re-Forming?…” talked about what happened at AutismOne this year, and it was an eye-opener. It showed that there was, in fact, some common sense in the community. It was right after this article that I got the invitation to attend.
To refresh your memory on the lack of organization issue within the Autism Leadership ranks take a quick look at the article “The Autism Community Simply Cannot Help Itself… The Reasons Are Legion…” It basically said that Autism Leadership was all about posing, not doing. And, for a large part, all of that is still in existence, but not completely. There was, at least, one significant group, AutismOne, that broke with the old ways. And the changes are major and require some minor explanation.
Posing? Yeah, like SafeMinds nitwits buying new dresses to wear to a meeting with a Federal Agency that doesn’t give a big rat’s ass whether they are there or not. Or the so-called Canary Party posing for pictures with Congressmen.
Things are looking up…
I’m going to give you details about that “Think Tank” and where it’s going in a minute. But first, let’s look around a little.
I like the looks of everything Leslie Manookian is doing. That piece she did on the “Thinking Mom’s Revolution” is first rate. So too do I find those “Thinking Mom’s” first rate. They all remind me of my save-the-world daughter Jennifer and her Revolution Truth group, who (gasp) calls herself “Tangerine,” who I’m so proud of I can’t see how she came from my genes. Those of you have been reading me for years will remember “Yup, That’s My Kid…” when my punky kid organized the lawsuit against Barack Obama over the NDAA, including as Plaintiffs, besides herself – Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), journalist Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and other famous names you’ll find in the article.
Of course what Andy Wakefield is doing, every day, has tremendous merit. Have you seen his latest nine minute video with Brian Hooker? It is called “Senior government scientist breaks thirteen years of silence on CDC’s vaccine fraud.” Go watch it.
Every one of the anti-mercury in vaccines groups have great value.
All of the anti-vaccine people get my approval. Vaccines, and the companies that make them, in my opinion, need to be banned forever.
To give credit where credit is due I have to say that the Age of Autism series is much improved. Their articles, these days, have zing, and are aimed at the problem. Don’t know why they decided to quit being a wallflower, maybe it was Jake Crosby poking at them, but, for whatever reason… Of course, Ann Dachel, over there, is always on target. She is a force.
A surprise, and I like surprises, is Barry Segal. After I ripped him last year in my article “Treachery… A “Way of Life” in the Autism Community…” Barry politely told me I was full of shit and put together a VERY good operation called Focus Autism and their program is called “A Shot of Truth.” Barry’s underlying thought is that “tinkering with the immune system causes problems, and if it is going to be done it has to be done both carefully and safely.” And, as Barry points out, he has only had four wives, not five… And, Barry DID part ways with the two people who had decided that they had ALL of the autism answers and didn’t need to work with anyone. I have recommended Barry for the Autism Leadership strategy team being formed. Go read his website Focus Autism.
So, Here We Go…
What about this Autism Think Tank thing? You are going to love the answer.
Remember, in one of my earlier articles, from that column on the right, where I said:
“There are simple ways to organize problems for solution. Everybody uses them. Businesses can’t survive without them. Even government agencies use them. Advocate organizations employ them. Yet, for a myriad of reasons, the Autism Community cannot sit down and organize a campaign to solve their problems.
They cannot sit there and make a list of their problems, then discuss possible solutions. They cannot take those possible solutions and make plans. Consequently, they cannot execute any plans. And, finally, they cannot review the situation because they didn’t even start any process.
Instead, as the AutismOne meeting in Chicago a few weeks ago shows us, they get together, pose, position, preen, and posture, for what few parents of Autistic children show up for the event – and VERY FEW are showing up these days. The attendance is dismal – less than fifteen hundred people including the posers, preeners and posturers.
Then, to close the event, in front of those same Autism parents, they get falling down drunk at a Karaoke night, leaving, as you might expect, a solid impression with those parents of what the Autism Community leadership REALLY has to offer.
Nothing.
So, Teri Arranga, from AutismOne, a little justifiably miffed, perhaps, at my criticism of 2013 AutismOne sits me down and explains her view of autism life to me one day. She had, as you recall, just come away from the 2014 version of AutismOne, where she and Ed had, as I described, “thrown out the trash.” Teri invited me to meet a person named Dana Gorman who runs a website called Thriiive.com and hosts what Dana calls “Summit Meetings” – but I now call “Think Tanks.” Thirteen of them, so far. Eleven which happened before me. The two of them invited me to attend meetings twelve and then thirteen. These meetings are, frankly, a “who’s who” sampling of cutting edge health care people, and Autism Activists – perfect for putting together a strategy to remove Autism as a problem in the world.. Joe Mercola MD has 
attended about half of them – schedule permitting.
There, at the summits I attended, were a whole host of people I knew from “Health Freedom” like Lee Cowden MD, Dietrich Klinghardt MD, Garry Gordon MD, Keith Morey, Robert Slovak, and of course Teri Arranga. And there I met others I had heard of but had not met like Anju Usman MD, Jorge Moreno MD, plus Roy Dittman, Jerry Sparby, and others. I sat and paid attention. Why?
Because, it didn’t take long to figure out that this was in a scenario I was familiar with – organized material answering well thought out questions – unlike what I was seeing anywhere else in Autism Leadership. These people were working in a situational analysis format I am totally familiar with. And, it is obvious that they had been doing this for a very long time. This wasn’t their first rodeo.
The photos above are Dana Gorman with Joe Mercola MD, on the left, and Deitrich Klinghardt MD on the right.
These were meetings of thinkers not stinkers…
These Think Tanks are successfully coming up with strategies and protocols that REVERSE Autism.
Just so we are clear on what I am telling you – I’ll say that again – These Think Tanks are successfully coming up with strategies and protocols that REVERSE Autism – and they are making this information on how to do this available to Autism families – free. Can you really REVERSE Autism? Of course you can. Read the New York Times article – click here.
I Have Been Asking Questions…
Several years ago I had a Crisis Management client in Texas – an Autism clinic, CARE clinics of Austin, Texas, that had been shut down by the Feds when they raided them allegedly investigating Insurance Fraud. CARE Clinics had been treating thousands of autistic children and billing health insurance providers for their services – for about a total of seven years. They had an incredible success rate. We presented the study results at Jo Antonelli’s Autism conference in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin on May 8th, 2010. Steve Barrie ND, the founder of Genova Labs, headed the study. It said:
Stephen Barrie ND presented his official findings of his retrospective study of 2,000 of CARE Clinics’ patients, at an Autism conference in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin put on by Jo Antonelli, on May 8th, 2010 – over three years ago. Here’s the summary:
“Preliminary results from a retrospective data analysis of a very large ASD clinical database is showing confirming information that indeed children with ASD have elevated levels of several toxic chemicals that have been documented to be neurotoxic and that these same children have genetic variations that interfere with the proper detoxification of these chemicals. With over 2,000 patients in the database, this may be one of the largest studies to show that environmental factors and associated genetic components may be contributing to the causation of ASD.
Future analysis of the database will evaluate hundreds of other physiological components as well as clinical data relating to the correction of specific biochemical pathway abnormalities with condition improvement.”
CARE Clinics was cleared of any charges in the investigation and the State of Texas Administrative law Judges assigned to the case declared the Autism Protocol used by the Clinic to be the “Standard of Care” for Autism. So, there is an autism protocol in existence, that health insurance has to pay for. We’ll talk more about this in the future.
So, what is different about what the Think Tank is doing?
They are setting up a system to educate, online and at regional meetings, the Autism families on what is actually happening to their child, and how to work on their own, and with their health professional. Why is this necessary?
I had a long talk at Summit Thirteen with Anju Usman MD (photo of Usman and Klinghardt on the left, and Usman, Klinghardt and Mercola on the right). Anju is famous in Autism circles. Something she said summed up, for me, a large part of the problem. She said “I have a two-year waiting list for new patients…”
Oh my… The Autism health professionals that know what they are doing are radically overloaded. There are over four million autistic children, and only a few health professionals. See the problem?
So, what Anju Usman MD, and the others, are doing at this Think Tank run by Dana Gorman is simple – they are trying to find methods to reach way more people with a common sense approach., and this is the mechanism they are using.
A “You and your health professional,” and a “You and your child” combined approach. And, I have to say, this approach is light years ahead of anything else the Autism world is offering.
It’s Damn Near Perfect…
What’s not perfect about it is in the details being worked out. Dana Gorman was telling me that when she began these Summit Meetings she had no idea how powerful these meetings would become – how much incredible information would come of it. She knew, I think, of the potential for valuable information, but did not forsee that an ultimate healthcare solution for Autism could be presented. So, she didn’t go for top quality video capture.
What this means, quite bluntly, is that the CONTENT of the video is astounding, but the sound, and picture quality sucks in a good many of them. But, as Dana points out, video is video, and since all of the participants are willing to do their lectures and panels all over again – she will just re-do the videos as they go along. Go take a look at Dana’s website www.thriiive.com and you will see what I mean.
So, what else?
A lot. For instance I didn’t get to be invited to those meetings to just sit there and listen. I asked questions, threw in ideas, made suggestions of more summit participators, and CONFRONTED these people in my usual style. And, they were more than up to it. None of them are timid. They were people with direction, seeking out others of the same mind. They want solution – and they know how to go about it.
I had three main things to bring to this table:
(1) There needs to be a constant “Autism Strategy Team” meeting to do a continuous Situational Analysis. That team needs to be made up of thinkers. That team needs to set up “input” streams from the Autism community. I showed them how that works in actual practice. I asked the questions: (a) Where do you want Autism to be in three years? Five years? (b) What Objectives can we put in place as achievable landmarks? My point of this was “How do you solve a problem if you don’t know where you are going?” Their answer – Yup, let’s do that.
(2) You need to take your Autism Protocol one more step – we need to fit it into a health insurance format so it will be paid for by insurance. That way ALL autistic children and their families can be fixed. Can that actually be done – yes it can. Their answer – Yup, let’s do that.
(3) We need to train hundreds, if not thousands, of health professionals on an acceptable Autism Protocol – where the health professional can work with the parents and the child. Can that actually be done? Yes, it can. There are several training organizations out there that could EASILY do that – A4M, ACAM, etc. Their answer – Yup, let’s do that.
So, what’s next?
A lot. The first thing that’s happening is that a combined AutismOne/Thrive.com event has been scheduled for Friday, August 29th, 2014 in conjunction with the 42 Annual Cancer Control Society meeting in Universal City. Click here for more info from Thriive.com, or here for AutismOne sign-up information. There are only three hundred seats for this event. It was designed to be small – and act as a pilot for larger events.
This alliance makes other groups, like Generation Rescue and TACA, obsolete.
Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate