I am so excited to share that as of this afternoon, Brycen officially has respite and Supported Community Living services approved to him! I received the Notice of Decision by fax this afternoon and am so pleased to begin the respite this week when I am back in Evansdale with family. My mom is going to be our main respite provider and Kelsi will be our main SCL provider. We are looking at hiring a second SCL provider as back up for when Kelsi goes home for Christmas break.
For SCL, Brycen will be working on three main goals for 20 hours per month: Safety, Independent Living, and Communication. We are waiting for written notification about the goals before Kelsi can officially start them, but these are things she has already been working with him on for months, so it will be an easy transition to just documenting them a certain way.
The respite hours will be a nice way for us to feel comfortable with leaving Brycen and give us a break. We chose my mom as she knows Brycen better than most and he is so comfortable with her, listens to her, and has fun with her! She and my Dad have already been doing so much to help us out by offering to come here in October and always willing to watch Brycen while I run errands and such while back in Evansdale. Now we won't feel so guilty about leaning on them so much since Mom will get paid for her help in all of this! We are already planning a few days for just Mike and I to go to Mall of America in February! Since Dad is now retired (and since Aubree is a Grandpa's girl), he can come along and hang out with Aubree while Mom works respite with Brycen when he is not in school.
It's been a long 3 months since starting the application process and moving the paperwork forward, but I have learned that all that hard work is paying off finally! All the calls, emails, faxes, visits to DHS...all felt like it was a job in itself, meanwhile continuing to work on paperwork for my own clients for work...it has all resulted in what we set out to achieve for Brycen...the insurance that will allow him further treatments and assessments needed, as well as the goal based program to help him become more independent!
"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
Helen Keller
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Autism and Our Family
"Autism"----It's one word that can change the life of a child and family in so many ways. Autism Spectrum Disorders are being diagnosed at a rate of 1 in 68 children currently. If you do not already know someone that has been diagnosed, the statistics say it won't be long before you do.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
Our son developed typically until around the time he turned 2 years old. We heard words...we saw him play with other kids...we watched as he played with his toys appropriately...we made eye contact with him...overall we understood his wants and needs. In a matter of a few months, that was all taken away from him. He began lining up toys, lost all of his words and signs except for one word "ball", ignored other kids, could not sleep through the night, lost eye contact and the ability to follow directions, and he had no way of letting us know what he wanted or how he felt. It was heartbreaking to see something happening to our child that we couldn't stop!
Brycen began receiving home therapy 1-2 times per month for about 6 months before we realized it wasn't just developmental delays. We knew it was Autism...we just didn't want to say it outloud to anyone. He was officially diagnosed with Autism (classic form and regressive), as well as Mental Retardation in August 2009 by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
We continue to learn as we make our way through this journey with Brycen and we will continue to share this journey with you on this blog! The blog has been a great therapy for us to be able to vent our frustrations and struggles with accepting that we have a child with special needs, while sharing how blessed we are to have a child teach us what life truly means. It has also been a great way to inform others of his progress and changes over the last couple of years.
Thank you for your support of Brycen and our family! We hope you are able to learn something through this blog no matter if you are a parent of a child with special needs or a neurotypical child, a teacher or therapist, a family member, or just someone that is interested in the journey that a family goes on as they learn their child is battling a life-long disorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment