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Maryland offers "The New Directions Waiver" as a means of self-directing state and federal Medicaid dollars for individuals who qualify for supports due to their disability.

This offers the disabled individual the opportunity to use those dollars to best meet their own unique needs. However, it comes with the responsibility to create a plan, a budget, and find your own resources to make the plan a reality.

No centralized source of resources exists. The purpose of this blog is to direct others to resources in our communities and to provide one example of a self-directed plan. (*Caution: The self-directed plan described at the beginning of this blog is for an individual with a 5/5 needs rating, the highest possible rating in Maryland, and therefore the highest budget possible. Most will have a lower rating and a lower budget to work with.) It is also to share firsthand knowledge of experiences that may assist others who self-direct services.

Comments are welcome. Please share your knowledge with others.

Friday, April 2, 2010

For Autism Awareness Week

This week there is a lot of media focus on the topic of Autism. It is a good time to learn about more resources out there than you may have known about before.
For Wrightslaw Yellow Pages for kids with disabilities, copy and paste this URL :
http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com
They list advertised services, state by state, so this can help you find the service you are looking for, where ever you are in the United States.
If you have (or are) a teen or young adult with an ASD, and work is a concern, copy and paste this URL:
http://www.jobs4autism.com
This website has the input of people on the autism spectrum who have found jobs and what their experiences have been. Some parents post as well.
Have you ever wondered if you (or your child) would benefit from a service dog? Well, there is a story about a family with an autistic child that had an elopement problem, who was helped. To read about it, copy and paste this URL:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/autism.service.dogs/index.html?hpt=Sbin
While our dog is not a "service dog", we did get her as a puppy with the thought that she could help us to provide a companion to V, who was not an authority figure and who could comfort her at night if she woke up and felt lonely. She has performed those jobs well, and does not react to sudden or loud movements by V since she was introduced to her at a very young age.
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