Commissioner Ehlinger Please “Fire” MDH Autism Department Head – Ms. Dalbec

I know why such harsh request – before you say blah and blah. Let’s just look at some history of how other autism moms and bloggers have always asked similar requests since the beginning of time for those in charge of autism in state and/or federal levels to be fired.

CDC director and most CDC autism folks have been at the receiving end of this. NIH and NIMH probably daily an autism parent or blogger is calling for their firing. Even Autism Speaks leadership is asked to fire someone or other including me which was Peter Bell.

Thank God – he quit or maybe got fired – who cares, he is gone now from being the director in charge of all family engagement and autism policies at Autism Speaks. There is even rumor Autism Speaks’s previous president Mark R whom I personally liked was canned.

Then there are those that disagree most folks at public committees including IACC, some even protested when I was nominated by Sec Sebelius saying I was a government puppet.

So, I totally get it and I can take it because autism is emotional, complex, confusing, diverse, full of disagreement and heartbreaking. It ain’t easy, but for those of us that are parents – we simply have no other choice but to walk in this heat.

Now, let’s go back to MDH (Minnesota Department of Health) and their department in charge of children with special health care needs which includes autism.

First, Ms. Dalbec does a horrible job in community outreach. She has not done any.

2nd, Ms. Dalbec is the person behind MDH refusing to share any resources for autism from HRSA autism grant in 2013 with minority based agencies.

3rd, After years of asking – MDH website and phone line still fails to meet the Federal CLAS guidelines (culturally and linguistically appropriate services) In other words, if you take Federal funds which MDH does then they should have a phone line and a section in their site for non speaking English folks. They don’t and Ms. Dalbec is totally clueless about this.

4th, More Somalis and others are afraid of immunizations and have made the connection to autism which means Ms. Dalbec has failed explaining it well and providing information on it.

5th, Ms. Dalbec apparently did not understand the difference between managed care and fee for service autism services. So, how can MDH really be in charge of explaining services if their leader herself does not understand simple policy.

6th, Ms Dalbec was behind the elimination of the state autism task force and was helping Norton to silence autism families. State agency folks should stay neutral and not interfere in legislation that dismantles parent power. Dalbec decided to break that trust.

7th, Ms. Dalbec has never held any workshop for Somali or minority autism families.

8th – well you get the point and that is too many problems for MDH to keep someone who clearly is not qualified, lacks empathy and knowledge.

Therefore, we ask that Commissioner of MDH hires someone for autism that cares and is always in the corner of autism families regardless of their color, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.  Ms. Dalbec is not the right person and this is not a job for a cold hearted person.