February, 2011

Recent events involving services administered by Health and Welfare have prompted me to update this page.  This past summer, Aaron was "tested" to determine his continued eligibility.  The test (SIB-R) was improperly administered, and showed him to have advanced over 3 years in a 1 year period.  Due to this testing, Aaron was to be taken out of the program that has been working well, and placed in programs that are more expensive and less effective.  This, tied to a reduced budget, basically meant Aaron was losing all services of value.   We have protested this action, and are currently involved in a long, expensive, and totally unnecessary legal battle to re-instate his services.  I will be posting background and progress as soon as time permits. 

On January 28, 2011 an open meeting was held for the Idaho Legislature to hear testimony on Medicaid budget issues.  I prepared this testimony for that meeting.

My original posting:

Much of what I post is light-hearted, or posted with the intent of at least slightly entertaining the reader. However, there is a very serious issue that I take to heart, and that is the terrible waste of money and resources by our various government agencies and other groups that are supposed to be helping our handicapped and disabled citizens.

Do not misread this. I am totally in favor of helping these people. I am not in favor of paying the wages of incompetent workers that do not have a clue what they are doing, and in many cases do more harm than good.

In 1979 Michael, age 1, became my stepson. Michael was challenged, both physically and mentally. He was a slow learner, plagued with a serious heart defect from birth. I raised Mike through age 18, when he went out on his own. Prior to that, his mother and I had separated, but I always cared about Mike. He faced many challenges, the greatest being his physical problems from his heart defect.

In February 2006, Mike, age 27, died from complications from surgery in an attempt to correct problems with his failing heart. Perhaps the saddest part of Mike’s short life was the fact he was denied so many benefits he deserved because the paperwork was too complicated for him to comprehend, or the case workers didn’t follow through, or were simply incompetent. Had Mike been able to access better medical care he might still be with us.

In 1997, I re-married, and knowingly took on two challenged step-children. Aubrey and Aaron, adopted at age 5 and 3, started their lives with brain damage due to their birth-mom being a drug addict and alcoholic. These children were further damaged by abuse and neglect until their adoption.I have been amazed and appalled at the total lack of resources available for these children. Oh, it exits on paper. Health and Welfare has really great programs, but none of them can be made to be effective in real life. I can go on and on about the challenges in getting help for these kids. Aubrey and Aaron are now 25 and 22, struggling to survive in a world that without a few people fighting for them would simply lock them up in prison or a mental ward.

As time goes on I will be linking to more and more information about what needs to be done, and where our systems are lacking. Anyone with input is urged to contact me. I am looking both for unsolved problems where those of us that have been though this can be of help, and help from those of you that have found solutions.There are many kinds of disabilities. The one I am most familiar with because of having lived with it, is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS. Here are some links that will further explain this disability.I have also started a discussion forum on this subject. Please visit my "Forum" page, go to "Non-Technical" and feel free to join the dialogue.