Mikomi wrote:
My 2 yr old receives some scant services through our county's MR/DD board for autism and apraxia opf speech. He was diagnosed several months ago. Problem is our county has NO speech therapist or occupational therapist through MR/DD/Early Intervention. He is supposed to be receiving 2x/wk speech and 2x/wk combination behavioral/occupational therapy for sensory problems. He gets 1 hour, 1 time per week of "therapy" I can barely call therapeutic. There is another place I can go with him, and pay out of pocket until EI gets the paperwork submitted and my state agrees to pay since the services are supposed to be free through EI. However, even paying OOP, they say the most he can get is 1-2 sessions per MONTH. They say they are "flooded" with referrals due to the county's "services crisis", and this is the best they can do. This is beyond unacceptable to me.
Further, the scant therapy he is getting keeps getting rescheduled or canceled! When I explained that we needed an additional day for them, the therapist told me it "just wasn't possible" because of my "scheduling conflicts". My only conflict is taking my other child to and from school!! ! She refuses to shift the time slightly so I can accomplish this. I have no babysitters, no local family, nothing. Worse, for his diagnostics/evaluations (he is being seen by neurology, genetics, speech and psych) I have to drive to a large medical center over an hour from me and the winter weather (severe storms, like losing power for days and getting 20+ inches of snow dropped) keeps canceling appointments which take MONTHS to get in the first place!
Some of you might be asking why on earth we don't just move. My husband has a job here that pays well and he enjoys. There are absolutely zero opportunities for the rest of us, as we live in a severely socioeconimically depressed region, but having a job you like that pays well is important. But this is why they cannot get therapists in the county - no one in their right freakin mind wants to move here, and 90% of the people here want out!! ! It is not a "young" town, and there are not even any children on our entire street or anywhere else nearby. My kids don't even have playmates, which everyone keeps saying would help my son a lot.
I'm frustrated. I work with my son 1-2 hours per day. I've gotten him, in two months, from communicating at 12-18 months level to 20-22 months! He's catching up! I buy Signing Time videos and I'm borrowing those Bee Smart vocabulary builders from the library. I use flash cards, and utilize YouTube to learn about speech therapy activities by watching videos other parents have made of actual sessions. I write down his alphabet sounds and work on the ones he cannot pronounce yet. I narrate his whole life, saying everything we do including up, down, push, pull, jump, walk, run, smile, etc., everything. And this is fine, but he needs a professional, which I am not.
I was wondering if any other parents here have suggestions?
That's a tough situation. Having gone the medicaid route for medical care for my child years ago and living in a large city that's not socioeconomically depressed, but that has way more "medically indigent" than one would expect, I can understand the 9 to 12 month wait for appointments (if you can even get one - which assumes it's a "covered service"), the "you don't miss the appointment or you get rescheduled for six months down the road" thing. We had to take the bus, actually three buses, and then wait all day because it was a "show up on this day at 8:00am" and then a first-come, first-served until everyone with a "that day" appointment was seen. Social services are almost always the first items on the budgetary chopping block when fiscal hard-times hit. Expect things to get worse, not better, for the next few years.
Basically, in that situation, you do whatever you have to do to make sure you get to the appointment. Period. That's the only game in town, unless you can afford to pay out-of-pocket for a private provider (if you can locate it). Your husband may have to arrange to take off from work to pick up your other child from school when those pick-ups conflict with your scheduled appointments.
Given that you have the situation that you have, and that you find it intolerable, I'd say you're going to have to relocate. Yes, having a job you love is important. However, in this case, I'd say your child's well-being is more important. Your husband can get another job he loves when your child is grown.
Best of luck!
12 Mar 2008, 1:06 pm
