Change Week
We are going through some changes this week regarding provider services. This isn’t something I wanted, we know how difficult change is for autism, yet one change was necessary, the other change, simply was beyond my control and really more of an inconvenience than anything.
John receives speech and occupation therapy. Dustin does not anymore. That’s a whole other story there but goes back to the same service agency that I’m starting to think I should have ditched years ago. John has not been getting consistent occupational therapy in a year or so. For a child with fine motor issues and severe SPD, this is not a good thing. He needs that OT as much as he needs speech. So I finally made the call and sought out another therapy agency in our area and we have two intake appointments this week, today and Friday. I hope this change pans out for the good. I really thought it was the best move, alternative was not getting any OT services, being put on a wait list which is what our former agency seems to be famous for. I will update you on our experience with the new agency and let you know how it’s going. For those of you who are local and seem to be having the same problem, don’t wait around for services for your child. These years are crucial to their development and sometimes you have to seek out something new, something better.
The other change we are going through is John’s SCL services. It’s like a broken record with this agency. Summer schedules come and they want to make changes without consulting the families. They ask for our summer schedule and then make changes that were not discussed, or submitted or even approved by the families. WOW is what I got for our SCL provider. Autism specific agency and they should know how this is hard on our kids. We have other providers that we have to see, they know they are not the only ones, so not taking into consideration that by changing our schedule without our approval throws a wrench in our whole routine.
The other thing that through a wrench in our plans with SCL was a change in staff. With a 4 day notice they decide to take our staff person away and place someone else with us. It has taken 6 months with the current staff to start working on one of John’s goals, taking him out in the community. We lost services with Dustin because of behavior and this agency just can’t seem to deal with teens with autism, only children and adults which for the life of me I can’t understand that. Anyway so I had made plans for the summer to take Dustin out while the SCL provider had John out in the community. Frankly these boys are tired of being in the house all the time, since we do school also at home. Now my summer plans are ruined because we have to build a new relationship with the new staff and build trust and that takes time. If they think I’m going to let a stranger take my child alone out in the community, they are sadly mistaken.
