Reduction of and Denial of Services, and 2 weeks off from school. Oh my.

Last month we had a double whammy.

Whammy #1 was finding out Thomas is not eligible for the ANY of the programs that the county offers, but IS eligible for one they don't. How ridiculous is that! We don't agree with this and we are appealing it. I have cordially invited all the social workers, doctors, and even computer programmers (since they wrote the program that establishes eligibility) to spend a week with Thomas, providing us the needed respite that that program funds, and tell me again how ineligible he is. But, alas, they can't do that. Why? Because they are not licensed foster care or employed by the temp. agency that the county requires we use for respite.

Whammy #2 was finding out personal care hours for Thomas were being reduced from 6-1/2 hours per day, to 2-1/2 hours per day. Subwhammy is that if the pesonal care worker is unable to give Thomas a shower on any given day, it's reduced to 2 hours. I guess I wasn't all that surprised that the hours were reduced some, but I was surprised at the extent of it. Because we were changing companies who manage the PCW's, we received only a few days notice about this.

One of the things we're doing to give both places a bit more information about Thomas is having him tested today for something. I'm not even sure what test is being done, and we know that it might not even help him get qualified for any more services. What we DO know is that it should give us a more up to date report of where he's at developmentally.

Today is the last day of school before the holiday break. This is going to be one interesting two week stretch. His personal care worker is out of the country until January 11 and we don't have a backup. The respite money we have available is all well and good, but we don't have a provider, for a variety of reasons. That's a common problem everywhere.

We'll manage. I know we will. But, the real question is "Is this good for Thomas?" We'll find out.