I can't remember if I've written about this before or not, but I'm writing about it now.
We're having issues with Jesse's home therapist.
Since we hired her, she's been either late or sick nearly once a week. And sometimes twice a week! I've actually been pretty understanding, I think, in regard to bus schedules and whatnot. I understand if the bus is running a few minutes behind. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that she sleeps in or misses her bus FREQUENTLY. And she's sick a LOT, and often it's because she "couldn't sleep last night." I've already talked with her about it. Actually it was an email, since I thought it would be good to be able to proof read what I wanted to say, have it be objective, and then get a reply from her, and have a record of it all. It went well, I thought, with me suggesting starting therapy an hour later in the morning, and running an hour later. This would, I had hoped, put an end to the issues with "sleeping in" and "missing the bus."
No such luck.
Today she called about half an hour before start time and said she'd missed the bus, and it would be another hour before the next bus, so she'd be an hour late. Well, start time is 9 am, she'd get here at 10 am, and the senior therapist, who's only here once a week to review Jesse's programs, gets here at 9:30 on Monday mornings. This is just not acceptable.
If it were me, I would have called a damn cab and gotten to work on time. There is no way in hell that being an hour late for work on anything other than a once-in-a-blue-moon basis would be acceptable in any other job. I'm sure she doesn't do this at her retail job. I can't imagine her still being employed there if that were the case.
I'm so pissed off. Why can't people take this job seriously? I hear of this issue with home therapists from other parents a fair bit. And I think it's ridiculous! What's even worse is that she's SO good with Jesse and he loves her to pieces. I know he's going to really miss her if we let her go.
***sigh***
I'm just so frustrated.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Wow, it's been a while!!!
I've been a very bad blogger this summer! I guess I just have so much to blog about that it keeps building up and building up and I need such a huge chunk of time to do it all that I keep putting it off....you know how it goes. I live by the Procratinator's Creed: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
Anyhow, there are a few things I want to post about, including Jesse's 6 month follow-up with Dr. C (developmental pediatrician). But right now I'm posting about Jesse's speech therapy.
We FINALLY, after FIFTEEN MONTHS of waiting, got Jesse in to see the SLP, Kim, that works with the development program at the Janeway. It was a good appointment in all...and it lasted for about an hour and forty-five minutes, which was kind of surprising to me. I figured it would be an hour at the most.
At first the way she spoke to Jesse was very exaggerated and simple, but after about a half hour she seemed to get the fact that there's nothing wrong with his receptive language. (I did also tell her that his private SLP had just tested his receptive language a few weeks ago and found it to be perfectly normal.) She played with him a lot to get a grasp of what he was capable of, and she spoke with Jesse's home therapist quite a bit too. She wanted to know what programs he was currently doing and how he was doing with them.
Overall, she thinks he's doing really well. He's rapidly gaining language. Right now she wants us to work more on verbs, which we've been doing anyways (and are coming along!). She thinks speech sounds should take a back seat to more general language development. I don't think I really agree with this though, since he's rapidly gaining language fairly naturally as it is now. She had some suggestions for his therapy, too, which was great. She's very familiar with ABA therapy and so can make suggestions for programs to work on. And we're planning a home visit for later this month.
My one big concern though is that she generally only sees her patients once every 2 months. I'm not liking this, since he's been going weekly and it's obviously working. But Kim said that she generally works in more of a consultative role with the whole therapy team. I think that could be partly true, but I'm also pretty certain it's in large part due to lack of resources. So, we've made the decision to keep up our sessions, on a biweekly basis, with Jesse's private speech therapist.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to update on Jesse's appointment with Dr. C.
Anyhow, there are a few things I want to post about, including Jesse's 6 month follow-up with Dr. C (developmental pediatrician). But right now I'm posting about Jesse's speech therapy.
We FINALLY, after FIFTEEN MONTHS of waiting, got Jesse in to see the SLP, Kim, that works with the development program at the Janeway. It was a good appointment in all...and it lasted for about an hour and forty-five minutes, which was kind of surprising to me. I figured it would be an hour at the most.
At first the way she spoke to Jesse was very exaggerated and simple, but after about a half hour she seemed to get the fact that there's nothing wrong with his receptive language. (I did also tell her that his private SLP had just tested his receptive language a few weeks ago and found it to be perfectly normal.) She played with him a lot to get a grasp of what he was capable of, and she spoke with Jesse's home therapist quite a bit too. She wanted to know what programs he was currently doing and how he was doing with them.
Overall, she thinks he's doing really well. He's rapidly gaining language. Right now she wants us to work more on verbs, which we've been doing anyways (and are coming along!). She thinks speech sounds should take a back seat to more general language development. I don't think I really agree with this though, since he's rapidly gaining language fairly naturally as it is now. She had some suggestions for his therapy, too, which was great. She's very familiar with ABA therapy and so can make suggestions for programs to work on. And we're planning a home visit for later this month.
My one big concern though is that she generally only sees her patients once every 2 months. I'm not liking this, since he's been going weekly and it's obviously working. But Kim said that she generally works in more of a consultative role with the whole therapy team. I think that could be partly true, but I'm also pretty certain it's in large part due to lack of resources. So, we've made the decision to keep up our sessions, on a biweekly basis, with Jesse's private speech therapist.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to update on Jesse's appointment with Dr. C.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)