Autism Medicaid Waiver

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Has anyone applied for the Medicaid Waiver. It is supposed to help you access services and get support you need for your AS child.

My son has the medi-cal version. But all the paperwork was done for us through the Regional Center, so I'm afraid I can't offer any advice on how to get one.

I was wondering what kind of services people get with these waivers and which ones they find most useful. The lady who is helping me keeps saying to ask for respite care, but I don't know how I feel about that yet.

I go on Monday for the screening and I'll find out more.

I think it varies a lot from state to state. My son's medi-cal pays the co-pay on most of his medications and doctor visits -- it would cover most of his medical care if we didn't have good insurance that pays first. It covers a very small amount of occupational therapy (half hour a week, ludicrous.) It would pay for diapers if he needed them.

We also receive respite care, but that comes directly from the Regional Center, not medi-cal. I am a huge fan of respite care. It allows me to get to the gym and have the occasional date with my husband. My son loves his respite care workers; they are usually youngish and he has fun with them.

I know we probably need respite care but I still feel weird about it. The only one who helps us is my Mom. She takes Sam for a night or two. I know I'm being very overprotective.

The medicaid waiver intake went ok. But I get the feeling that in Va it is for more severe cases.

If you do get Respite Care services, you could start out small. One of my son's caregivers is only here for 1 1/2 hours and my husband is usually in the garage working during that time.

You may also be able to hire people yourself, depending on how it works there. I used to hire a good mom friend to babysit. Then the system got a lot more difficult to use and I switched to having an organization deal with it for me.

We also have some special organizations that take respite hours - for example, there's a horseback riding facility that specializes in therapeutic riding for disabled kids. I would just read a book for an hour but he was never out of earshot.

Anyway, of course you should do what makes you comfortable, but do check out all the options before closing the door. All parents need some decompression time and having special needs kids can make it harder to find.