Autism Waiver

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Does anyone else have an autism waiver in their state? Basically, it means the state will pay for lots of services (in-home care, people to take you into the community, individual therapy if desired). Does anyone have any experience with such a waiver?

The man came to my house to interview my mom and I about it today. We thought I might be too high functioning, but he said I should be accepted. It would be great to get the services I need to be able to live on my own.

nope, i'd never even heard of it

I've never heard of it, either.

I've only ever heard of something like that in England. I didn't know it existed here in the States at all except for adults with IQs of 70 or below..

I've never heard of an autism waiver, but in southern California, there's a place called the Frank D. Lanterman Center that provides services to people with developmental disabilities. Their website is http://www.lanterman.org/

When I was diagnosed with HFA, my parents signed me up with them. They offered classes on independent living skills and a bunch of other stuff that I never really felt I needed and never took advantage of. Occasionally, a social worker would come to my house and interview me to see how I was doing. I eventually got tired of having the interviews and I never really used their services, so I basically stopped responding to them and they dropped me from their service.

Looking back, I wish I would have stuck with them, simply for the fact that my advocate, Michelle, could have helped me deal with getting out of jury duty. It would be a lot easier to deal with that if I still had a social worker to stand up for me and say, "Yes, I know he looks normal, but he has a bone disease that causes his bones to break like glass (osteogenesis imperfecta) and a developmental disorder that basically makes him socially ret*d."

New York State has it. Is that where you live? My area offers all sorts of services. I don't know about the "waiver," but I do know of loads of benefits for those with Autism.

Nope, I'm in PA.

In Oregon, we call that "brokerage services." To qualify, you much have a functional IQ of less than 70. This has nothing to do with regular IQ, tested by an IQ test. It is from an adaptive functioning scale, like the Vineland test.

I was surprised I qualified because I have a high IQ. However, my social understanding is very low. I have a home care worker who spends 3-6 hours a week with me, depending on what I need. I also have a "personal agent" with the brokerage who helps make sure I'm getting other services I need, such as vocational rehabilitation.

I would imagine every state would differ, but I've heard that Oregon offers the best system, which is one reason I don't want to move. I know people getting a lot more hours than me who are not mentally ret*d on an IQ test, but that have ASD.