Military Parents Battle the System to Help Their Autistic Children
Reader Comments
Fight for services at the base, fight for school services
I'm in the same boat. We are in the family plan and in ECHO. Both my kids are on the spectrum. WE have a decent IEP for both kids. School services OT,SP, behavior plan, resource and my pre-schooler with above services ABA and extended pre-school.They also get home ABA and OT but not speech not enough staff............ Military handlers didn't even bother looking at our 3 state moving choices or our Kids needs. We're waiting for the orders to DC and we're going to fight it. You can't expect a child to wait for months for on basic base services and expect 2 siblings kids to go different counties for education! We may loose our home services! I wish these personal would work with parents and instead of pushing people into areas with no services!
Services in Canada
Well I am Ottawa, Canada and the care is no better up here. There is a tremendous waiting list for up to 6 months to see a OT for 1 hour a week. The special education school is private which is 71K a year, which the State Dept is having a hard time to approve the funding. Right now, I am in the process of asking for an reassignment to a location where they offer agressive care. Does anyone know military locations that have the facilities for OT (3 to 5 times) a week, ST (5 times a week) and special education program for at least 20 hours a week.
Retired military members are also part of military
After being retired of the military Tricare Echo was not able to provide same services. There should be equality among the service members retired or not. If our insurance will not comply with the problem, School systems have to aknowledge the problem not being able to teach and hire specialist or learn from them. Parents should not have to worry about the quality of education regardless if the kids are healthy or not.
It's always a fight!
I feel better knowing.I'm not the only one. Where were stationed None of them have any kids with disabilities. They have no idea what is like to have to fight the schools none stop and spend years trying to get services like OT, SP, AND ABA in this 1 state. The state were at is rated 49(will be 50 this year, as the worst for sped). We only get 3 hrs a week because of shorted staff for ABA and speech we're on a waiting list. Another thing because the state is short OT, ABA etc. The services are on the the short end of the stick too. The OT and ABA and school are trained on working with potty training but none of them will lift a finger! So I keep trying at home.
AUTISM
I AGREE THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD SUPPORT HELP FOR PATIENTS
WITH AUTISM.I HAVE A LITTLE FIVE YEAR OLD GRANDDAUGHTER WITH
AUTISM AND I FEEL IN MY HEART IF WE CAN SUPPORT OTHER ILLNESS
WE SHOULD HELP THE CHILDREN AND ADULTS WHO ARE AUTISTIC AS IT
IS NOT ONLY HARD ON THE CHILDREN IT IS HARD ON THE PARENTS
EMOTIONALLY AND FINANCIALLY AND I HAVE BEEN TRYING BY BEST TO
CALL MY CONGRESSMAN AND MY SENATORS IN MY DISTRICT TO HELP WITH
THIS PROBLEM
Autism Getting help early
I agree the sooner that you get help for your children the better off they are in the long run. Coming from a mother of twins with Aspherger's (a form of autism)you wouldn't believe the difference in them since they recieved therapy and were put into a special needs school. One is actually able to socialize with people outside of his tight little group on a farly good level and may even be able to adventulay be on his own. Where as the other will always be at home with us but at least he is able to express some things and can tell us what is wrong even when he doesn't understand it. If it wasn't for myself and the doctor's fighting with the school system to get them the extra help they needed then and still need I don't know what I would of done. To top that off I am not in the military nor is my spouse, but it is a battle and noone wants to deal with it or help.
I have come across a few other families dealing with the same issues and always pass along my experiences. If it helps another child to get help faster then the battle that I went throught to get my sons help is helping others also.
Keep up the fight our children deserve to get the best help that they can to be able to advance as far as they possibly can. You may be surprised as to what they can do when someone gives them a chance.
Autism Getting help early
I agree the sooner that you get help for your children the better off they are in the long run. Coming from a mother of twins with Aspherger's (a form of autism)you wouldn't believe the difference in them since they recieved therapy and were put into a special needs school. One is actually able to socialize with people outside of his tight little group on a farly good level and may even be able to adventulay be on his own. Where as the other will always be at home with us but at least he is able to express some things and can tell us what is wrong even when he doesn't understand it. If it wasn't for myself and the doctor's fighting with the school system to get them the extra help they needed then and still need I don't know what I would of done. To top that off I am not in the military nor is my spouse, but it is a battle and noone wants to deal with it or help.
I have come across a few other families dealing with the same issues and always pass along my experiences. If it helps another child to get help faster then the battle that I went throught to get my sons help is helping others also.
Keep up the fight our children deserve to get the best help that they can to be able to advance as far as they possibly can. You may be surprised as to what they can do when someone gives them a chance.
Autism Treatment for Retirees Dependents
While my husband was in the service my son who is asperger received services. Now that he retired after 28 years in the service, it feels like my kid is considered sub-standard. I have just called 20 psychiatrist (list is from Healthnet updated Jan 11,09 within 50 miles of my home (just moved from TN to VA) only to hear "sorry, not taking anymore patients" or "sorry, we don't have experience with autism spectrum". Tried calling one of the casemanagers at ECHO, who told me "oh, well call the people on the list, no you may not contact a behavioral therapist".
So, I guess my son should be dx-ed, because Dad is no longer active duty and he is considered sub-standard? Thanks SGM for all you did, thanks for making your Tricare payments, but your son....well no comment!
Military Families
Not being in the military, or having a family member in the service, I don't feel as if I have much right to comment, but this makes me extremely sad. If the nation were to hear and understand how the healthcare of our service men and women is handled I would like to think that they would demand better. Those who defend and protect our country, and their loved ones, deserve better. I am sorry that you do not get it.
Fairness across the Board
We have 3 EFMP children only one Autistic but we learned that Respite Care is only given to a select group of individuals and they are state driven. So, you could be on their waiting list like me and my family (2 yrs and still no Help) was when I was stationed at Ft. Bragg. I've been in the Army for almost 20 years and our oldest will be 18 soon, where's the help been? I can't get promoted because of my child's needs due to only a few assignments that have good medical facilities and doctors that want to help. The military doesn't want anyone in that has family issues like this. While stationed at Ft. Campbell, I had a 4-star General and his wife tell me and my wife that I should suck it up and deal with it. Then they proceeded to tell me that not even WalMart would help like they do. I disagree, I worked for Sam Walton and he'd do anything for the people who worked for him. Funny thing is a radio new story came on a week after that and it was WalMart allowing a worker spend as much medical time needed with their child allowing them to keep their jobs as well as medical payment issues were being given by the Corporation. Our oldsst was diagnosed at four years old and we had to file bankruptcy because the Army wouldn't pay for all the trips to D.C. and back to my assignment (130+ miles away). Regulations said that my child and me would be TDY and help with lodging would be given to us. However, my Command and 1SG denied it to us. We went into debt over $40,000 that as a young E-5 (SGT) couldn't afford to payback so quickly. The assignments were HELL on my wife and me because I had to request hardship tours to help ends meet. We've even been turned down for his Social Security dividend because of my pay however, an officer can get it though. Things need to be the same across the board with no rank issues.
