{"id":22364,"date":"2023-06-17T15:14:06","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=22364"},"modified":"2023-06-17T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T19:14:06","slug":"autistic-adult-day-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/06\/autistic-adult-day-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Autistic Adult Day Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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June 14th, 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not an important date for the world, just graduation day for my then twenty-one-year-old, profoundly autistic son.<\/p>\n

The last day I have the security of knowing he is cared for, and kept active.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The last day I know for certain he will have somewhere to go.<\/p>\n

For the last few months I have been researching day programs for Justin for 2024. Yes, it\u2019s a year early, but I\u2019m a planner, and there will be so much to do for both of my children in the next two years that I decided to get something off my plate much sooner. Getting appointments was grueling. The programs are understaffed, they don\u2019t have ample time for tours, and he\u2019s not eligible for a year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, I am nothing if not persistent. Today, I see my last one.<\/p>\n

I know nothing will ever come close to the last thirteen years at his beloved private school for autistic children. I am mentally prepared for that. I will still require wine, chocolate and perhaps therapy after his graduation, but I am, in theory, prepared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The truth is, the places I\u2019ve seen so far seem to have caring staff; the one place I saw with actual clients had adults who looked engaged and happy; every facility I\u2019ve looked at has safety protocols, and schedules.<\/p>\n

Some even have snacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, with the exception of one facility that is relatively new, there are waitlists, which for boring reasons I won\u2019t entail here I won\u2019t be able to put Justin on until at least February; or they have informed me that due to lack of staff they may not be taking on new clients next year. Could Justin possibly have in-home care instead? If people are willing to do it, potentially yes. Will we have to kiss a lot of toads to find our caregiver? Most definitely. Will they work more than three consecutive weeks?<\/p>\n

That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

For profoundly autistic adults graduating in the next year, there is the extra challenge that all those who qualified for the extra year at school (Justin missed it by a year) are graduating next year, so there are three to four times the amount of graduates as in a normal year.<\/p>\n

Three to four times as many autistic adults as usual, all looking for a place to go.<\/p>\n

Something has to give. There are thousands of families faced with the daunting prospect of 24\/7 care for their adult child, while trying to work, keep them engaged, and get their mammograms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Something has to change.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I will go to my last facility with a smile on my face, and the truth. That my son is a good candidate for their day hab because due to his inherent nature, hard work, and a lot of luck, he is compliant, loves to go places, and happy.<\/p>\n

I will be pleasant.<\/p>\n

I may imply a frequent influx of homemade chocolate chip cookies.<\/p>\n

And I will keep fingers, toes, and every other appendage crossed that next July he will have a place to go, five days a week, all day, where he will be safe, engaged, and happy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A place where hopefully they will like him, not just a little, but a lot.<\/p>\n

I will be profoundly grateful if you all wish us luck.<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 14th, 2023. Not an important date for the world, just graduation day for my then twenty-one-year-old, profoundly autistic son. The last day I have the security of knowing he is cared for, and kept active. The last day I know for certain he will have somewhere to go. For the last few months I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-ocean-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5OI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}