Speechless

Bloggers--please forgive me for being so late on my post, but it is a crazy life when you are a working mom!

That being said, it was a long summer of phone tag with Early Steps, which began in mid-May. (Early Steps is a government-funded program that offers physical, occupational, and speech therapy to struggling children ages 0-3, regardless of ability to pay.) I left several messages with my family service coordinator, the serive coordinator's boss, and her bosses boss! Sometimes you just have to work your way up the chain when you are trying to fight for services for you child. When I finally got to talk to the right person in mid-June, they did a temporary authorization for Brandt to do speech two times per month until we reconvened for our scheduled Family Service Plan meeting in September. I was okay with the temporary authorization because I knew that he needed something since he's basically speechless, and I figured it would get increased when we meet in September.

Because Early Steps does not have many providers, they referred me to a local pedicatric therapy facility. Once contacted by the facility, I was informed that they had a three to four week waitlist. Great--brickwall. I patiently waited for a month, until I was finally back on the phone with Early Steps. I hated waiting when I knew that waiting just meant that my son was falling further behind. Finally, two weeks ago (mid-Aug), the local pediatric therapy facility called me to book an evaluation!

Last week, Darrin took Brandt for the speech evaluation. Generally, that's an appointment that I would have liked to of been at, but that was my first week back to work--which means back to picking and choosing which appointments I really NEED to go to.

The evaluation went really well (depending on your opinion of what "well" is). Darrin was a little frustrated with some of their questions--especially when it came down to them wanting to know dates for milestones he has reached--but that is understandable for him when there was so much depending on his answers. The speech pathologist did a few activities and measures with him to test his abilities in communication skills. He scored slightly below the norm in understanding and significantly below the norm in speech. Based on the data, they determined that Brandt needs to do speech therapy two times a week.

I am thrilled that we can get him the services he needs, but that does not come without some stress. Early Steps only has authorized two visits per month--and since there are eight weeks in a month--we are stuck with the copays of six extra visits a month at $40 per visit. And then Darrin and I have to figure out how to add those appointments into our already-busy work schedules. The facility was clear that if we missed more than three visits, we would be discharged. So, it is another brickwall.

Meanwhile, speech therapy cannot begin until the facility receives authorization from our private insurance company to go ahead with the treatment plan.

I have began the phone tag with Early Steps again to see if they can't change their authoirzation, but they are back to not returning my calls again. Great--brickwall. Still, I am scheduled for my Family Service Plan meeting at Early Steps in a couple of weeks. They better be ready because I am fired up and ready to fight for my little boy. He has a physical therapist that goes out to his daycare, and I have already voiced that I want the same with his speech. So, I can continue to fight for a speech pathologist who can go out to his daycare, and then I can begin the process of fighting for him to get occupational therapy, too.

Years ago, parents did not have to fight this hard for services. Our failing economy is failing our children today and their futures tomorrow. I hope things will start to turn around soon--before too many of our children are left behind.