TORONTO — By the time Moira Robertson got an official autism diagnosis at 23 years old, she had missed out on a lot of the government-funded support she desperately needed.

Her childhood and adolescence is marked by painful memories. She stopped going to school after teachers called the police to handle her, and kids peed on her student council posters and publicly declared that something was wrong with her. She wet the bed as a teenager, collapsed into public meltdowns, and felt chronically misunderstood.

Robertson, now 25, grew up in Bruce County, Ont., a 2 ½-hour drive from Toronto, where many of the psychologists and pediatricians who diagnose autism are located. None of the local health providers would diagnose her, and it took five years of waiting to see an out-of-town specialist

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