Intake

Steve and I had our intake appointment with the autism program social worker yesterday. Talk about information overload. The basic gist is this:

-we'll be assigned a senior therapist in about 3 weeks
-the senior therapist will see Jesse once weekly over 3-4 weeks to evaluate his needs
-we then go to an ISSP (individual support services plan) meeting, attended by all the people who'll be involved in Jesse's therapy, to make decisions regarding the treatment plan
-Steve and I attend start the process of hiring a home therapist
-Steve and I attend the 3 day ABA (applied behavioural analysis) training session

Over the course of the next 6-8 weeks, we'll also have appointments with the autism program's psychologist, Jesse's neurologist, the physiotherapist at the Janeway that works with kids with PDD, Jesse's GP, the social worker (again), and possibly others. It's getting difficult to keep track of it all.

I was hoping to possibly make use of the critical illness insurance that my parents have purchased for Jesse - using it to cover lost income while I took a leave of absence from work - but I think I'm going to save that for if/when we truly need it. The autism program here in NL covers the cost of ABA home therapy. As a treatment, it's shown the best outcomes for kids with ASD. However, not all children do well with ABA. So if it comes to the point where we're considering other treatment options, we'll have to pay out-of-pocket for those, as they aren't covered by the provincial health care system.

I guess I'm going to have to get really good at time management.