Author: Brooke Hasch, WHAS 11 News Reporter
Published: 12:43 PM EDT April 30, 2025
Families in Kentucky and Indiana struggle with autism services due to age restrictions and lack of facilities, forcing some to move for better care.
CHARLESTOWN, Ind. — Families who rely on Autism services are facing a crisis across Kentucky and Indiana. There’s a combination of factors, including limited resources, underfunding of Medicaid programs, and increased demand for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy.
Over the last few months, WHAS11 has followed the journey of a Louisville family fighting to find the best care for their son with autism, whose violent outbursts made it impossible to live at home.
However, Kentucky is a state without residential facilities for most kids like Frankie Moldoveanu. So, he’s living 700 miles away, apart from his family, getting the care he needs at a facility called Heartspring, in Kansas.
He’s not the only one.
Kentucky state records, from the last two years, reveal more than 130 kids and young adults, 21 and under, are being sent out of state for help they can’t get at home. These are residential facilities that specialize in severe intellectual and physical disabilities, along with a few in addiction programs.
That adds up to $14 to $15 million a year in Kentucky Medicaid funds going toward these out-of-state programs.
Families like Frankie’s have traveled to Frankfort to plead their case, hoping to find enough lawmakers who will make Autism services more of a priority in the Commonwealth.
But it seems, more could be on the chopping block rather than in the works, with Congress weighing drastic cuts to Medicaid and disability services across the country.
It’s a similar story in Indiana. One Charlestown family says it’s the same struggle for adult children with autism.
Skyler Hellmann is rarely in the same place for long. He paces his home, the neighborhood, and the parks all day long. His parents Laurie and Josh Hellmann are never more than arms-length away.
“I think we’ve slept maybe every other day for the last couple months,” Josh Hellmann said. “So that parts hard.”
Skyler has profound Autism, meaning he’s on the severe end of the spectrum.
“He’s never uttered a word, non-verbal his entire life,” Laurie Hellmann said.
He was diagnosed at the age of 3 and has since been eligible for a variety of Medicaid-funded therapies and programs to help him reach his full potential.
“When he used to go to his ABA center, that was our Monday through Friday, 8 to 4 reprieve, so we could do our jobs and just have a moment to do things,” Laurie Hellmann said.
That ended when Skyler turned 22. The day Medicaid cut his funding, and all the programs attached to it.
“Families like ours know this is coming. This is like our doomsday when our kids turn 22. It’s damning knowing this day was coming,” Laurie Hellmann said. “Medicaid decided if they’re not doing certain things by a certain age, they weren’t ever going to do them. So, they made the magic age of 22 and decided to cut them off from traditional services.”
Skyler’s mom said he could continue with some services, but they’d be out of pocket for almost the entirety of the program, which amounts to thousands of dollars a day.
“There are no adult day programs in Southern Indiana for Skyler to attend nor are there waiting lists for future attendance,” Laurie Hellmann said. “Those programs usually consist of daily community engagement, peers to interact with, job shadowing tasks (if able) and continued work on independent living skills. I know of one in the Louisville, Kentucky area. We’ve been on the waitlist for 3 years now and there’s been no movement. There is nowhere for him to go.”
Skyler came home in March and has been there ever since. His only sister, 19-year-old Kendall, is currently off to college. So, it’s just the three of them.
“No respite, no help,” Laurie Hellmann said.
“We’ve had 15 people come here for possible respite; they’ve all met Skyler. Not one of them came back,” Josh Hellmann said.
It’s beyond frustrating.
“It’s not easy on a family, on a marriage. The sad thing is we are just one of hundreds of families in the Kentuckiana area,” Laurie Hellmann said.
Today, the CDC says among 8-year-olds in the United States, one in 31 kids are diagnosed with Autism. It’s a significant increase from the 1 in 36 reported in 2020, primarily due to factors like improved diagnostic tools, increased awareness, and broader diagnostic criteria.
Today, of the millions of people with autism, around 27% of them will need 24/7 care the rest of their life.
“There’s a lot of focus on early diagnosis and rightfully so,” Josh Hellmann said. “But what happens next? There are a significant number of adults impacted by Autism. The thing I think of most is what can we do for that population.”
“We’re never going to not be care givers. This is our life until Josh and I pass away,” Laurie Hellmann said. “That’s our biggest fear at night, is what’s going to happen to Skyler when we’re not here. We all come to the same conclusion, like why is no one helping us? I understand this is our family, our situation. I’m not saying they should rescue us, but there has to be a better answer.”
She’s spoken to everyone at the state capitol who would listen, met a handful of lawmakers over lunch, even gave them a copy of her book, Welcome to My Life, written about her parenting journey with autism.
“When she talked to lawmakers, she wrote the bill. They didn’t have to do any work,” Josh Hellmann said.
“Every time, when I followed up it was, ‘this wasn’t as pressing of an issue when we were in session, so this has to take a back seat,'” Laurie Hellmann said.
“The feedback we got later after continually asking what happened, they didn’t get the chance. They didn’t have enough time because they were voting on the official sandwich of the state of Indiana. That just shows me where priorities lie,” Josh Hellmann said.
“We’re constantly left behind,” Skyler’s mom said.
But moving forward means moving away.
“We have to do what’s best for us and we’re moving,” Laurie Hellmann said. “We settled on Colorado. They’re the number one state for adult services with disabilities. So, we’re packing up and we’re going. He’ll do horse riding, continue his spelling program. There’s a day program that’s ready to accept him as soon as he gets there. It’s just getting there.”
Yet another family moving hundreds of miles away to get the autism services so desperately needed in their home state.
“Everything people outside of this Autism bubble see, on TV, is the other side of the spectrum. It’s not The Good Doctor. He’s not Rain Man. Love on the Spectrum is another one. That’s amazing, and I love that autism is more in the limelight. But this is the side of autism they don’t understand. This is the life so many are living behind closed doors. We just don’t always talk about it, because people can’t relate. So, the people who can relate, I want them to know they’re not alone,” Laurie Hellmann said.
Because it is isolating and lonely, for everyone involved.
“I feel like we’re his only buddies. He is just the coolest dude in the world,” Josh Hellmann said.
“I would give anything for him to have a friend,” Laurie Hellmann said. “He’s only ever had us, and I just want people to see the gifts he has and how much he can change the world just by knowing him.”
