Thriving despite the challenges

Vital help: While the centre has been able to accommodate more students since its inception, the challenge is to secure funding to keep the centre running at optimum level. – Photos: ONG SOON HIN/The Star

AFTER more than a year since its inception, the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM)-Pengaman Autism Centre at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) is now thriving in helping autistic children.

Set up in August 2020, the PDRM-Pengaman Autism Centre began with just six students and four teachers or intervention officers. Now it boasts of 25 students with six intervention officers and an occupational therapist.

The backbone of the centre is Yayasan Pengaman Malaysia, the NGO that focuses on the welfare of police retirees and personnel. The centre operates from Monday to Thursday, with Fridays reserved for occupational therapy sessions.

Yayasan Pengaman general manager, Azura Izham, who is in charge of the centre, says it has been a rewarding but challenging journey in establishing the centre and helping children with autism.

“We started in August 2020 with the main objective of helping autistic children of police personnel.

“Our fees are quite minimal compared to private-run centres, which can cost parents between RM3,000 and RM12,000 a month,” she says.

While the centre has been able to accommodate more students since its inception, Azura says the challenge is to secure funding to keep the centre running at optimum level.

“The foundation has to top up about RM20,000 monthly just to cover the cost of operation.

“We are very much dependent on corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributions from companies and other entities,” she says.

Bureaucracies and red tape are also common frustration as they serve as a stumbling block in acquiring aid, Azura lamented.

“I went to request aid from a government department and was told that the foundation needs to be listed under the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to show that it is a legitimate entity. It is perplexing as Yayasan Pengaman is a non-profit organisation and registered under the Prime Minister’s Department.

“I do hope the policies for such departments are amended so that more aid can be given to the needy, minus the red tape,” she adds.

Azura: ‘The modules depend on the needs of the students.’

Idea for the centre

Azura says the centre was the brainchild of former Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Hussin Ismail, who is now Yayasan Pengaman deputy chairman.

“He (Hussin) used to interview officers for promotion when he served on the Police Force Commission Board.

“He discovered that many of of them have autistic children and faced hardships such as lack of proper support as well as costly to send their children to private autism care centres,” she tells.

Hussin worked on raising awareness on autism, which culminated with the launch of the standard operating procedures for special needs suspects, victims and witnesses in March 2019 based on input from experts such as special education expert Assoc Prof Dr Hasnah Toran of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

“After the SOP was launched, efforts began to set up the autism centre.

“After years of planning, the centre was launched by then IGP Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador in 2020,” she says.

Emphasis on quality

With 25 students, the centre emphasises quality, whereby each class would have the ratios of two intervention officers to three students and two intervention officers to four students.

“For students with severe cases, it is normal for one officer to focus on each of them,” Azura says.

The centre provides three types of classes – early intervention, transition and full day.

“The modules depend on the needs of the students.

“For example, in early intervention, we focus on the issues faced by the students, whether he or she has anger issues or cannot grip items such as mugs or utensils.

“There are cases where a nine-year-old cannot even take off their own clothing when they go the toilet so we will work on it with them,” she explains.

There are no fixed time frame in helping the students as each children faced different issues, she adds.

“There is this one student who has motor function issues such as being unable to grip items so he had to be spoonfed. After several months at the centre, he is able to feed himself despite being messy.

“Another one has tantrums such as knocking his head against the wall but now he is calm and able to follow instructions,” she says.

Long waiting list

As of now, Azura says the waiting list (for enrolment) is about 70 children.

“We need more space and funding to be able to accommodate more students.

“We actually wanted to hire another occupational/speech therapist but we cannot afford it,” she says.

With rising operational cost, Azura says the centre had to increase its fees slightly.

“Some parents complained, so in the end, I asked them to write a letter to state how much they can afford.

“We are also working with Baitulmal to help the parents secure zakat aid under the ‘asnaf OKU’ scheme”. We have also engaged the Welfare Department,” she says.

Currently, the registration fee is RM400 for both children of police personnel and public.

For the early intervention class, the fees are RM400 (for police), RM650 (for public. Fees for intensive class are RM600 (for police) and RM750 (for public). For full-day class they are RM900 (for pollice) and RM1,200 (for public).

Azura notes that the fees at the centre are still much cheaper compared to other private-run centres despite the slight increase.

The majority of students at the centre are children of police personnel while 30% are from the public, says Azura.

“When we first started, some people had the mentality that the centre would not be up to standards.

“However, they changed their minds when it was officially launched last year. The doubters saw the facilities offered and thus many wanted to enroll their kids,” she says.

Biggest challenge

While funding is a huge issue, Azura says the biggest challenge is cooperation from parents in continuing the centre’s teachings at home.

“In order for our methods to work, parents must continue to do it at home.

“The children are here between three to six hours a day, the rest of the time they will be at home. Thus, parents must play their part,” she says.

At the same time, centre also made it compulsory for parents to join the classes at least once a week, whereby the intervention officers will be able to teach the parents how to assist their children, Azura says.

“If the teachings are not practised at home, no progress will be made.

“For example, we have this one child who always wanted to be carried and we managed to make headway, whereby he would not do so anymore. However, when we went for an outing, the child fell back his old habits and refused to walk.

“We found out later that the father had actually relented and carried the child at home,” she says.

The intervention officers provide counselling for the parents, whereby they are taught methods to help their children, Azura explains.

“Fortunately, most of the parents here do follow the teachings,” she says.

For parent Eva Aw, the centre has helped her eight-year-old son tremendously.

“The early intervention programme fulfilled his needs compared to special needs classes (in schools).

“Here, my son is trained with many skills and it is fun for him. He is learning and able to play as well,” she says.

Aw, who quit her job as a quality auditor to focus on her children, says her older son is also autistic.

“I quit my job so that I can focus fully on my sons,” she says.