Left to His Own Devices

We did it. Travis is set up in his own place. I knew I needed to figure out a plan for him. That he could not be left home alone all day, left to his own devices. Or he would spend all of his time on his devices! Hahaha. Did you get that? C’mon. It was a little funny!

Travis and I went to (LCHS) Larimer County Human Services to see what benefits may be available to him. We waited in the waiting room for three hours. There was a man sitting next to us. Reading his Bible out loud. It could have been a great learning experience for me. Except that he was reading it in Spanish. It was driving Travis crazy. If I’m being honest, it drove me a little crazy too. Because it made it hard to focus on my own reading.

Keep in mind that we were new to this. I had reached out for help with Travis his entire life. While he lived in our home. Help from therapists about behaviors. Help from various staff about how to best meet his educational needs.

Now I was reaching out for help for him to live independently. That was the first and the last time that I sat in the waiting room at LCHS. I figured out that I would much rather sit in my home on hold with my phone on speaker phone while I waited to speak to a representative.

Sometimes you get lucky and you reach a person that knows their job. And sometimes you don’t. On this particular day our representative was very helpful. I told him that Travis was on the waiting list for services through the Developmental Disability (DD) state waiver. I shared that Travis was able to see a psychiatrist and therapist through the waiver while on the waiting list. I told him that Travis was on the waiting list for the Housing Choice Voucher program. Travis was also on the list for DVR (Department of Vocational Rehabilitation) services.

The gentleman asked me if he had applied to the MI (Mental Illness) waiver. I did not know there was such a thing. He checked the box. In all honesty, an individual doesn’t know what may be available unless they ask. Travis wouldn’t know to ask. It was a good thing that we had applied for services in person that day. The representative, in meeting us personally, was able to gauge that the mental illness waiver could be a good fit.

As part of the MI waiver an intake case manager from Options for Long Term Care came to visit Travis in his home. Qualifying for Long Term Care and Community Based Services - Community Mental Health Supports is a two part process - functional and financial. His functional assessment interview took place during the case manager’s home visit. Once he was functionally approved his case was in pending status until he was financially approved. The process took about a month or so, but Travis was approved.

Travis could not be on both the MI waiver and the DD waiver. So once his name got to the top of the list for the DD waiver we would need to make a choice. Based on the offerings of each waiver, I knew we would choose the DD waiver. But at least for now he was getting some help.

As part of this waiver, Travis had a nurse come once per week to check his vitals and refill his locked medicine box. He also had a home care helper that helped prepare a meal or two for the week and helped with cleaning. He also qualified for an Adult Day Program.

I appreciated the nurse filling a med box. An alarm goes off to help Travis remember to take his meds. I also appreciated the home care help. It meant a bit less cooking and cleaning for me. The goal is to keep him from eating frozen boxed food for every meal.

The adult day program sounded interesting, so Travis agreed to give it a shot. The program that Travis tried was a specialized adult day program for adults with special needs, including traumatic brain injury, Intellectual/Developmental Disability and chronic mental illness.

The plan was for Travis to attend a couple of days per week. My understanding was that they would participate in community activities. In looking at the website today it states, “Clients go on outings to libraries, museums, movies, sporting events, local events and attractions”.

Under Recreational/Physical Fitness it says, “Clients utilize on site activities of gardening, dancing and yoga. Offsite exercise includes bowling, gym workouts, billiards and nature walks”.

This program has moved to a nicer and larger building since Travis attended. So it may be a better setup nowadays. It was at a church when he attended. I received a monthly summary that listed his wonderful victories and noted concerns. And I also started receiving incident report forms. And phone calls.

This got old fast for me. And Travis was bored out of his mind.

If a program is set up for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities and mental health issues, it should have trained staff that are able to handle whatever situations may arise. It should be a respite for me.

I would ask Travis what they did each time he attended. There was one day that they worked on crafts. Or you could choose to work on a puzzle. I guess that falls under therapeutic art techniques?

The website states that an individual plan is created for each client. I can assure you that Travis never said that he would enjoy crafts or making puzzles.

One incident report said that Travis dropped his phone and got upset. He walked away from the group. It seems that an employee that works in this setting should be able to handle such a situation.

One incident report said that Travis talked about marijuana to the staff member. Which is an inappropriate subject.

Travis tried it for about five months. But it just wasn’t a good fit for him. It felt like being back at school. Incident reports and phone calls. It did not feel at all like an adult program. At least not what we were looking for Travis. I am sure this program works great for other individuals. Individuals that are able to compromise because the majority of other participants want to make crafts.

Another stickler is that the program did not allow Travis to smoke his cigarettes. The average smoker is not able to go all day without having a cigarette. I have no idea how they thought Travis would be able to do it.

The program insisted that they had to have eyes on all participants and could not staff Travis going outside to the parking lot to smoke. Even though they could see him through the window. Having a few minute smoke break a couple of times a day likely would have helped him to better handle events throughout the day. Like dropping his phone.

Small changes could have made this a successful program for Travis. In his case it just did not feel very individualized. It didn’t allow for Travis to be Travis.

“Yet in my experience, when left to their own devices people will get up to one of two things: nothing much, and no good.” - Lionel Shriver