Anyone from the CA Regional System???

Post Reply New Topic

My Regional is the one on Wilshire Blvd.

Near Vermont Ave.

my agency is BUILD REHAB, 1323 Truman St, San Fernanado CA 91405.

Anyone from there???

Anyone within the CA Regional System????

FYI.

CA State ONLY.

I was until July when we moved out. it was Far Northern. Very slow

Where did U move to:
No CA
Oregon
WA
Idaho???

I know Understaffed & Underbudget.

Forever to get even counselling.

I have RX OK.

NO social life yet.

Been with Build since 04.

NOT all Regionals alike.
I feel ALL should offer

Uniform Services for clients.
A-Z

Career Testing
Job Searches
Social Life
Mentoring
Dancees via other groups, non profits.
etc.

NO exceptions.

BUT damn CA State Budget.

Im a HFA.
High Functional Aspie
Drive own car
Live at home since I have Insufficent income for own place in LA CA
Rents=1Ka month= to Home payments.
Plus food, gas, utilities.
Very expensive LA CA is.

Have SAD-Social Anxiety Disorder.

Take Celexa.

Make 7.00 hr tagging wines.

Avoid WESTVIEW AGENCY: worst overall
Take Money & Run.

Build Rehab Best ever.

As far as response time goes they are better than AZ and Indiana. But as far as services go, they are very limited as to what they offer. Actually, they didn't offer anything. You had to find out on your own what you wanted, then had to apply to see if you were eligible to ask for it, then apply for the service.
My son had specific issues that made him eligible for "adaptive life skills training". But when the expert comes over, she doesn't know what to do with him as he is too high functioning for her. She was used to counseling clients and families in dire straits. I wanted help with meltdowns, argumentative behavior and potty training. But that was too complicated and sophisticated.
So, the life skills turned into family counseling with some babysitting/respite thrown in for "free".
Most of the applied services, OT, Speech et al, came through the school system. My son was the classic "we'll do all we can for him" because he's extroverted, volatile, cute and smart. But a lot of other parents of introverted kids complained that their schools wouldn't do anything for their kids because "they didn't cause problems".

I'm in AZ now, because of the cost of living. But months into it and we're not receiving any help and I pulled my son out of the schools. Still fighting for services.


Overall, CA has the best guaranteed services for developmentally disabled clients because of the Lanterman Act.

One article said autistic care(I ASSUME for LFA) is about $60,000 per person! WOW! Where does all that money go? BTW they could have helped me out a lot,and actually SAVED money. I just DON'T like the "educational" system.

spacecadetaspie,

BTW I used to be in the sanfernando valley. (From woodland hills, to sherman oaks).
The cost is one of the reasons I moved. It is ALSO nice to be understood everywhere!

BTW I still haven't bothered to change my location. I am in Indiana right now.

What do they do for social things?

Why are you just tagging wines? Is there another job you can get? Tagging isn't worth much, and they pay just for spending money, not to live on.

And YEAH, every place is getting expensive. I could say why, but....

Steve

I wouldn't assume that those monies are mostly going to so-called "low functioning autistics". I was told that you couldn't receive services from the regional center for AS but have since read here that people are getting more services than even my son got. It's all in how much you research into just what you can get.
I knew a woman (who made 3X as much as me) who was getting "emergency" cash, groceries and diapers for free from the regional center. That doesn't even include the actual services for her son, who was the client.
That figure doesn't say where that money is coming from either. It can be ADL expenses that we all incur that are paid for by family, self, gov't in the form of SSI, medicaid (whatever it's called). Some of that figure can be superfluous costs stemming from so-called "treatments" and cures. My son probably had a sum of 10 hours of respite/skills training. But people in Indiana claimed that their kid's therapies cost $4,000 a month. (they were rich people getting that for free)
I wonder about how people are assessed and therapies are performed. A parent around here was discussing speech therapy for their AS child. But I was told that there is no speech delay with AS? My son has significant speech delay but getting services for him is like pulling teeth because he's considered "at age level".

Kimj,

I'm no idiot. It's the government! OF COURSE they skim. By SKIM I mean that, since the are the government, they probably take over 80% like they do for most things.

Anyway, maybe I should have said "What are they trying to use to justify it?".

Still, as I said before, I hate the government that acts like a little kid that bashes the street in front of your house with a sledgehammer, and then knocks at your door demanding that you pay him 3 times the cost to fix it.

Even with diapers, homecare, and special teaching there shouldn't be that much needed/allowed per child.

As for the speech delay, I don't know how they could diagnose AS with a speech delay. Some people here have spoken about impediments, etc... but that is totally different. Isn't one of the requirements for AS to be hyperlexic by 3?

Steve

I don't know why you are saying you're no idiot. I'm not justifying the $$ spending, I'm offering a likely reason they claim it's that much. I disagree that they are claiming to be the sole benefactors of autistic clients. I think that figure is taking into account the variety of possible expenses along with the likely source of payment for those expenses.
Like the diaper expense. Someone may include buying diapers for an older child or adult as "costs incurred in caring for autistic person". But many people use diapers for other reasons, autism isn't a direct cause or the only cause of incontinence.
Respite care is borderline expense. Yes, the gov't will pay it but the service is no different than babysitting. So, again, you are adding the cost of a service that non-autistics use all the time.
medical coverage is another one. People with developmental delays are covered medically in many states by Medi-Cal, medicaid or whatever it's called. That doesn't mean that all medical expenses are autism-related.
None of my son's medical care after he was 3 was autism-related. Before that, he had just two visits to a neurologist.

Hyperlexia, is specifically the marked early reading while having marked speech delay. Some people believe it is a subset of autism, some believe it is a separate, new diagnosis, and some people think it's merely a savant skill that autistics may have. I've never read that there is a necessary relationship between AS and hyperlexia.

First, as to the "no idiot" comment. I didn't mean ANYTHING derogatory. Please don't think I did. I was speaking of myself, and not implying anything at all.

Well, I was reading early, and speaking ahead of time(I apparantly didn't hit all the earlier milestones for speech.). And, while I know sites like http://www.hyperlexia.org/aha_what_is.html talk about the problems understanding,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergers

does say:
No significant delay in language;
No significant delay in cognitive development, self-help skills, or adaptive behaviors (other than social interaction);

I guess I was either imagining where I saw it, or it was changed, but wikipedia DOES say:

High-functioning autism (HFA) is the condition of individuals who display some symptoms of autism but who are able to function close to or above a normal level in society. HFA is sometimes also known as Asperger syndrome, however this is a misnomer. The difference is that in Asperger syndrome there is no linguistic delay however there is in HFA. In everyday terms, those who are affected by it may be understood as being "eccentrics", "nerds", "geeks", or termed a "little professor" or boffin.

It ALSO says:

Some [with AS] are so proficient at written language as to qualify as hyperlexic.

Oh well...

Steve

I'm with Harbor Regional in Torrance, and they've actually been facing a class-action lawsuit because they have refused to help people with HFA, Asperger's and PDD-NOS. Even though the only reason they help is that they had done so when I was a child, they are extremely slow when it comes to stuff. Usually they send stuff for things which I don't need such as seminars on medication management and the bus system. I drive myself, so unless the car is being fixed, I don't need the bus to go to work.

I agree with the poster in that Westview is the worst, they think disabled people are only good for retail positions and nothing else. I don't mind retail, in fact I'm doing seasonal work now, but it's not going to be my permanent career. I'm just doing it so I have some work experience and some extra money. They don't get that some of us can drive ourselves to work, or to an interview, even though we technically have a disability.

I'm still going for a government job, right now I'm going for a position in the post office because it's permanent, has benefits other than what SSI gives, and the pay is over twice that of what I'm making in my current job. I'm also on-call with a local temp agency for any data entry or other office duties. I'm hoping that leads to a permanent job as well because sometimes companies decide to hire temps full time.

I was a client of San Andreas Regional Center until I left the state. I'm glad I'm no longer a client there. It was very screwed up.