A GOLD Coast couple are giving away their seven-year-old daughter.

Benowa couple Robert and Debbie Lachlan say they have reached 'breaking point' and can no longer care for their daughter, Emma, who suffers autism and needs constant supervision.

She is likely to be instutionalised.

Disability support agencies say hundreds of other Gold Coast families are also in crisis and that services for the disabled are woefully inadequate because of a State Government funding shortfall of $300 million.

Although Mr Lachlan said the family was financially secure, they had made the decision because they were unable to cope with the situation.

"This is a parent's worst nightmare," an emotional Mr Lachlan, a primary teacher at The Southport School, told The Gold Coast Bulletin yesterday.

"We love Emma, she's a beautiful child but the fact is we are at breaking point.

"This is not a stunt and it's not an easy thing to do. We have to give her up, she's going to become a ward of the state because we just can't go on.

"I'm a desperate man. I have nowhere left to turn. It's wrecking our family. Emma is only getting harder to control as she gets older and giving her up is the only choice I can see."

Mr Lachlan said Emma could not speak or learn how to behave or communicate as a result of her neuro-biological disorder.

She bangs walls and draws on them, runs away, does not obey instructions and needs constant supervision, he said.

The couple's other daughter, Tiffany, 9, suffers a less severe case of autism but also needs constant care.

The desperate father-of-two blasted the State Government, saying there was a two-year waiting list just to put Emma into a respite centre for a weekend to give the family a break.

He said his pleas and letters to Premier Peter Beattie and Disability Services Queensland had fallen on deaf ears.

"They can spend millions on a footy stadium or a bridge over the Brisbane River but when it comes to caring for people who really need it the coffers are empty," said Mr Lachlan. "I wrote to the Premier but he didn't even bother to reply."

Choking back tears, Mrs Lachlan, who suffers muscular dystrophy, said deciding to give Emma up was the most heartbreaking decision of her life.

"It's such a terrible decision to have to make. What mother would ever want to give up her little girl?" she said.

Autism Queensland chief executive Penny Beeston said more than 150 Gold Coast children had autism and it was not uncommon for parents to break down and relinquish their child to a life in an institution.

She said Queensland only had two schools dedicated to autistic children and both were in Brisbane.

"If the support isn't there, families are going to crumble.

"That's what's happening in an alarming number of cases," said Mrs Beeston.

Susan Collins, who runs the Unmet Needs Campaign, which is lobbying for more disability funding, said Queensland had a 'history of neglect' when it came to support for the disabled.

A spokesman for Disability Services Minister Warren Pitt said the department would 'leave no stone unturned' in its bid to assist the Lachlan family and to stop Emma being relinqished by her parents.

"The last thing we want to see is a family relinquishing a child," he said.

"We're fully aware of this case and we are working with the family to make every effort that that doesn't happen."

Mr Pitt admitted there was a 'substantial level of unmet need' in the area of disabilitity services in Queensland.

But he said the Government was spending $634 million this year, an increase of $113 million compared to 2005.

http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/article/2006/09/19/870_news.html