Dear Editor,
My name is Jack Starry and I am the parent of a special
needs child. My son has Autism.
Recently, I was shocked to learn that the Virginia
Department of Health Child Development Clinic (CDC) located at 10 Baker Street
in Winchester, Virginia, will be closed effective July 1, 2013. In addition to
conducting full-scale, affordable, and reliable psychological evaluations, the
CDC evaluates special needs children, adolescents, and adults for the
Intellectually Disabled (ID) Waiver and the Developmentally Disabled (DD)
Waiver. These waivers help to provide essential services for these individuals,
which may include Behavioral Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Environmental
Modifications, and a wide range of other important aids to facilitate improved
quality of life for the affected people and their families.
When the Winchester location of the CDC closes, all
individuals who are currently eligible for services locally will be redirected
to the CDC in Harrisonburg at James Madison University. This is 72.8 miles away
from our local CDC. Isn’t it the goal of our community systems of care to serve
the children and families in our community locally? Isn’t it the goal of our
community to reduce the number of children and adolescents who “slip through
the cracks” due to a lack of local service providers? Does our community not
understand poverty as it relates to the need for accessible services here?
The individuals benefitting from the services provided by
our local CDC have a wide range of disabilities including autism (low to high
functioning), as well as other developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Travel can be traumatic and difficult for these children. A markedly increased
distance of travel is even more stressful and traumatic.
From my personal experience, the Winchester CDC observed,
evaluated, and documented my sons evaluation within a period of 3 months from
the time of referral. Because of their flexibility and availability to meet our
needs as a family, we were able to attend all of his appointments for
evaluation and follow-up with minimal loss of time from work. As I am sure you
can imagine, families with special needs children are oftentimes stretched to
the limit financially, as well as emotionally. The CDC kept the disruption to a
minimum. The evaluation isn’t a pleasant experience no matter how you look at
it, but it was certainly minimized by the close proximity to home and “normalcy”
for our son.
I recently called the Harrisonburg CDC to inquire as to the
length of time it would take to have my son re-evaluated. This call has proven
to be very telling. In order to complete our evaluation in the Harrisonburg
clinic, we were told that we would first need to travel to the CDC location in
Harrisonburg to fill out paperwork before the evaluation could be conducted.
The wait for this initial appointment, at this time, before even taking on the
caseload from the Winchester clinic, is at least 1 month. We were informed that
our son should not attend this appointment, meaning he would need to be supervised
at home while his mother and I would need to take an entire day off of work and
home duties to meet with the staff. Once this initial appointment is complete, a
minimum of 3 months on the waiting list will pass before an
evaluation can be scheduled (again, this is before the Harrisonburg/JMU Clinic
takes on the existing Winchester clients and overflow). Once the evaluation is completed,
another 6 weeks minimum will pass before the data will be compiled and prepared
to be presented to us. Again, for this final appointment, our son shouldn’t be
present, which means a second day requiring us to locate and secure a
babysitter who can adequately meet our son’s needs. For those who wonder, it is
not an easy task to find a sitter who is capable of managing a child with
autism, and, when this individual is located, it is not a cheap endeavor. In
summary, from the time of referral to the conclusion of the evaluation (mostly
due to the distance of travel), capable supervision for our child is required
for 2 days, and my wife and I will be required to take three days off of work
in order to make the trip to Harrisonburg. As most families who live paycheck
to paycheck will explain, missing this amount of time from work (3 days in 6
months) is frowned upon by most employers, and we cannot afford to lose the
employment that is so difficult to obtain in this time. What does this mean for
today’s families? If they have to choose between putting a meal on the table,
and securing childcare in order to go to an appointment, they will put food on
the table. When service providers are local, however, this is a non-issue.
It is pretty significant to talk about that timeframe before
I close. From the time of referral until completion of evaluation, it will take
the Harrisonburg clinic almost 6 months total - TWICE the amount of time needed
for the same evaluation provided locally by the Winchester CDC; aside, the State
Health Department has informed me in writing that closing our CDC will benefit
families because their contractors will be able to evaluate more patients in a
shorter period of time.
I invite you to re-read the above paragraph and show me
where the shorter period of time is located. I invite you to re-read this
letter and help me understand how my family will benefit from 3 days of lost
employment, 3 days of travel that will take us 3 hours round-trip, 2 days of
childcare by a specialized provider, and, oh, we’ll either have to eat out or
pack a lunch for the meals that we will need while traveling. Yes, I’m aware that,
for families who are blessed to have Medicaid insurance, travel can be
provided, or mileage can be paid. Again, this is another inconvenience to the
families who could receive local care and treatment, and an increased expense
to the system which is supposed to be saving money with this decision.
Closing the Winchester CDC is a mistake. It will adversely
affect hundreds, if not thousands, of families in the Northern Shenandoah
Valley, not to mention the numerous providers who rely on the CDC as a referral
source when there is no place else to go for our children. I urge your readers
to speak out against this closing, and for this community to stand beside its
claim to provide local, mental health treatment and comprehensive evaluations
to those of us who require these services.
Sincerely,
Jack Starry
JT’s Dad
Northern Shenandoah Valley Autism Resource/nsvar.org
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