So I've been waiting to blog about this for a while because I was hoping that this would be resolved quickly. But that would be asking too much of a disorganized mess of a system.
CJ has cerebral palsy, strong hypertonia from neonatal abstinence syndrome and now hip displasia. He wears a hip brace twice a day during naps and all night. We will be picking up his new leg splints this week. He receives an hour of Physical Therapy and an hour of Occupational Therapy a week. He goes to CP clinic once a month at the local Children's hospital and sees other specialists regularly.
His request to be catagorized as a medical needs foster child was turned down. WTF? His SW said (and yes I'm paraphrasing) but he's so fat and happy! OMG
We now have to get even more records....which is soooo easy when you're not the legal guardian (ask Baggage) get the pediatrician and therapists to write letters and then we can try to appeal the request.
You gotta be kidding me.
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5 comments:
The system stinks and we have battles for our kids at every turn. It's nice to be shoulder to shoulder in the battle with women like you, though! ~Kari
Totally ridiculous. I was able to get Snowbaby classified as medical and she doesn't have as much issues as your little one. Keep fighting for it.
Definitely keep fighting.
OMG!!
I laughed out loud, but really that's so awful!
We never got Niblet recognized as special needs in the foster system. But her needs were less obvious and severe than CJ's. I wish I could say "I can't believe it" but it's all too common for them to be this f'ing dense. Poor kids. They bear the brunt of all of this even more than foster parents.
So how does it work in your state? In PA, medical levels are determined by a doctor's prescription, but at least half the time I think the doctors don't even know what the medical levels mean -- a social worker tells them what to write, and they write it.
I am starting to think Philadelphia's system actually has some advantages. It seems Byzantine to have a whole level of private foster care agencies in between the foster families and the county. But on the other hand, if you happen to work with one of the better agencies, it's nice to know everyone at the agency personally, including the supervisors and the director, and be able to get things like medical levels mostly worked out at that level. Of course there are still some things that are strictly up to the county, and that are just as irrational as anywhere.
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