I am a parent of a 5 year old son who is non verbal autistic. Our son, Austin has been on the waitlist for the Innovations Waiver for 18 months and have been told he will probably be waiting another 10 years. We live in Rockingham County.
During the Covid pandemic his school program is ALL virtual... my heart is absolutely broken. Austin will miss therapies because he refuses to do virtual and our health insurance charges $100 for 30 mins a week for speech and naturally we can’t afford that.
I pray one day that it will be different and we won't have to be on a waitlist. It's so awful that when you do the right thing. My husband and I both work full time and have 3 children. We can't get services for Austin due to cost. He just had dental work 2 years ago. $5,000 and then a month ago he had to be put to sleep for more dental work for another $5,000.
The dentist and staff didn’t realize that even though Austin qualifies as disabled he can’t get financial support. It’s due to me and my husband working. We both have to work because we have bills and loans that we had to take out for Austin. It's so sad.
I will never forget the day he was diagnosed and I went to see if he qualified for special help and they said no unless my husband and I were to divorce. Then Austin could get get Medicaid/SSI and have his medical and therapy needs met.
We live in Rockingham County
Ashley Talley Carter.
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