I had a last minute meeting with Dr. Reynolds this morning. I called to schedule an appointment and they called me back and got me in within 45 minutes. I can't say enough good things about Dr. Reynolds. He's been there for Gavin since the very beginning and for that I will always be grateful.
Today's appointment was not an uplifting one but instead was a strategic planning session. We discussed everything for well over an hour. Residential placement is our only option.
Once we crossed that line, we talked about what the process involved and how extremely difficult it will be to aquire the necessary funding. The costs are basically broken up into 3 pieces. They are as follows:
1) Treatment, therapy, groups, testing, medication etc. This will all be covered by Medicaid, as Gavin's on SSI.
2) Schooling and education. This is not covered by insurance and is the responsibility of the local school district to pay for. Now because Gavin is in a charter school, I'm not sure how that will work. It might be an IEP thing. We need more information on this.
3) Room and Board. This is also not covered by insurance and is our *out of pocket expense. *When I spoke with the treatment facility last month, I learned that for Gavin, room and board will run approximately $500/day. That's right. You read that correctly. It will cost roughly $500 per day, for Gavin to stay there. That works out to be about $15,000 per month.
This is why we have to locate funding. It's simply not possible for us to cover that amount.
In order to aquire funding we will have to work with an organization called* **Stark County Family Council.** *
We have worked with them in the past and completed all the requirements prior to our obtaining funding. At that time, we managed to avoid residential care because a medication change was made and it really helped. However, all we did, without knowing, was postpone the inevitable.
At this point, I don't know if we have to redo the entire process or if we will be exempt for past completion.
That is the single biggest obstacle we have to overcome. We need funding and for that we may have to go through the process called *Wraparound. *It's a fantastic program that puts us in contact with as many sources as possible.
Naturally, we would like to avoid having to do this all again, simply to expedite the process. At this point, this is all I know.
When I learn more, I'll pass it along. My goal is to help shine a light on this process so that those coming behind us, will have the information they need to make this less scary and overwhelming.
I want something positive come of all of this.
*This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsungs Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct hate me.*
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