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What is the best location for Autism treatment?


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Not Maryland. Unless of course you don't mind waiting 8 years to get services. We have a program called the Autism Waiver which will provide up to 25 hours of in home ABA free of charge. It sounds wonderful except that there are only 900 slots state wide and that isn't near enough which is why it has an 8 year wait list. My 4 yo is currently over 4100 on the wait list. We'll be lucky if he gets any services at all by the time he's a teenager. School districts here do not provide ABA. I can't even get our district to offer any sort of OT services and that is with an evaluation showing ds is in the 1st percentile on things like fine motor. He gets speech through the school district but he has to be enrolled to get this (homeschoolers do not get services here). No other services at all and my child is considered in the severe category. He's 4.5 and considered functionally nonverbal, can't even answer simple yes/no questions, not potty trained, tons of stimming, severe apraxia, etc.

 

Can you tell I'd love to move but we bought in 2006 and are pretty stuck in our current house at the moment.

 

You can look and see which states have Autism mandates requiring coverage of ABA. However if you have a self funded policy then they are exempt from any mandates so a lot of kids in states with mandates are still going without services. Maryland doesn't have a mandate for ABA (they do have one for Speech and OT for ASD) however our insurance is exempt from it due to being self funded (most large companies are self funded). Not trying to be a downer but I've been really dismayed at the lack of resources for my son since he was diagnosed a year and a half ago. He does do some ABA but we pay entirely out of pocket for it and I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to keep it up.

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In my opinion not NH or IN. In NH we fought tooth and nail and finally received some speech and OT but nothing else.

In IN we were told to just wait until our son hit school age and maybe the district could do "something" (that was in the late 90'ies though so things may have changed).

We had lots of support and resources in MA (greater Boston area).

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CA is pretty good except that the severe budget crisis has caused a lot of pushback from the schools and Regional Centers. You basically have to be the squeaky wheel if you want to get any grease. Also, the general cost-of-living is insanely high (probably not higher than Manhattan, but definitely higher than most areas of New York).

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I would start by looking at my insurance and seeing who they will pay. Next I would look to see if any are near family that can help you. My parents are in poor health and my 40 yr old brother still lives with them. I am local and can help out when they need it, and am ready to take over when they can no longer oversee his care. I know that at times they have called me for help because they didn't want to involve friends or neighbors.

 

I also have a cousin with multiple disabilities. When his parents died, the move cross country to live near his brither was very, very difficult - he lost services temporarily, lost friends and support... They wish now that the parents had decided to retire closer to them instead of in their dream location.

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I have heard of people moving to our town from Hawaii and Florida for our public school's autism program. We went to a place in town for OT for SPD and the therapist told me they have families who made the two hour trip from Brooklyn for therapy there.

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I have heard of people moving to our town from Hawaii and Florida for our public school's autism program. We went to a place in town for OT for SPD and the therapist told me they have families who made the two hour trip from Brooklyn for therapy there.

 

Sounds great, but where are you? Your state and general area would be helpful. :)

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I have heard of people moving to our town from Hawaii and Florida for our public school's autism program. We went to a place in town for OT for SPD and the therapist told me they have families who made the two hour trip from Brooklyn for therapy there.

 

Sounds great, but where are you? Your state and general area would be helpful. :)

 

pm'ing you.:)

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If you'll have good health insurance you might see if state's you're considering have an autism mandate requiring treatment coverage if cost is a concern. I'd also look at homeschool laws.

 

We live in Indiana but used to travel to Cary/ Raleigh N. Carolina for RDI therapy. It seemed they had a wealth of services for autism there. I always felt if I could move anywhere for my son I'd strongly consider that area. There is just tons available. It doesn't have a insurance mandate to my knowledge though.

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