Autism and Employment

Today will be a short post as we cope, long distance, with Bil and my mother in law needing to be evacuated out of their home (without power since Saturday afternoon) to a relative's home about an hour and a half from her.  Fortunately, the roads were in good enough condition to permit this.

Bil only works part time, in a sheltered workshop, so getting time off from work for this latest evacuation (they also had to be moved, up here, due to Hurricane Irene in August) isn't a problem.

So it was interesting when I found this article regarding adults with autism and employment.

Bil is working in a sheltered workshop, part time - he is one of the "lucky ones".

How sad.

Weather - the Sequel

Due to the snowstorm in downstate NY yesterday, conditions are pretty bad in the area my mother in law and Bil live in.   Trees are down everywhere.  Some areas downstate got as much as 19 inches of wet, gloppy snow.  Mil and Bil have been without power for over 24 hours and here we are 150 miles away coping with our own problems.  Fortunately, family a little closer than we are are going to be able to drive down and get them, and take them back home.  So they will be in a safe place with power.  I wouldn't be surprised if it takes upwards of a week for their power to come back on.

We were afraid of this after Irene but, quite honesty, since the flood in our area in early September (which impacted us personally) we haven't been giving it much thought.  We aren't in a position to be able to put her and Bil up either, at least for another couple of weeks.

I hope this isn't a bad sign as far as the winter they are going to be having.

Sometimes when it snows....it pours.

Winter Weather in October

It is as if summer was only a dream.  We are back to winter and...my mil losing power due to storms.  It happens one or two times each winter.  It's not good that the first time is in October this year although...hopefully it will get above freezing there tomorrow.

Along with what may be 3 or 4 million people before this is over, my mother in law and Bil are without power.  I am hoping very much that they get it back sooner than the 5 days it took after Hurricane Irene.  Because this time, it is a matter of heat both for Bil and for my mother in law.

It was good, in a way, that this storm happened.  We've been thinking of our own issues a lot recently (also weather related, ironically) and had not looked into a generator for mil.  I fear it will be too expensive.  But my mother in law can not keep losing power.  And it has to be hard for Bil, too.

Temple Grandin on TV

Within a week after watching a DVD of the Temple Grandin HBO movie, we got to see her on TV once.  And she was to appear on ABC Extreme Makeover-Home Edition tonight, but we didn't find out about it in time.

Still...isn't it strange the way you will read or see a program or movie on something or someone, and suddenly that person (or a place, or an event) will suddenly pop up everywhere.

We saw the 60 Minutes last Sunday on Steve Jobs and to our delight, the show talked about I-Pad apps for people with autism.  I'm not sure Bil would benefit from any of that as he is verbal, but it was interesting to learn about.

Meanwhile, the Extreme Makeover program did a home makeover for an Oregon couple with two childen with autism, and I was able to read a local paper's article on Temple Grandin's visit (which was actually in September.)

One thing I've never checked into is whether Bil knows anything about Temple Grandin, or even if he knows if she exists.  Maybe - with an I-Pad app? we could one day find out what Bil thinks of her.

Hundreds Search For Missing Boy with Autism

A walk through a Virginia Civil War battlefield may prove deadly for a missing non-verbal boy with autism.

I hate to feel pessimistic about this, and my heart goes out to this family of a boy who wandered away Sunday during a family walk in the North Anna battlefield.  But the temperatures have gotten down into the 40's.  "Emergency packs" left by searches (with survival equipment) are left unused.

We can not lose hope.  Hundreds of volunteers are searching for him.

But we may well be facing another tragedy of autism.  How many times has something like this happened this year?

Is there a solution?

Justice Finally for Mark Lindquist?

It is the sad but sorry truth that people who work with the developmentally disabled, in so many cases, make barely above the minimum wage.  This is one reason why we can not get anyone to work with Bil and haven't been able to despite years of searching.  But people do go into that line of work.  And sometimes things don't work out too well for them.

And then, when an aide tried to save the lives (in vain) of three men with Down Syndrome as the Joplin tornado of earlier this year bore down on them, and suffered severe injuries to the tune of over $2.5 million dollars - his employer's work comp insurance company denied the claim because he hadn't put himself into any more danger than anyone else in the tornado's path!  Even more outrageous, Missouri law allows this.

Thanks to the power of the press, the insurance company has now reversed itself.

The aide was seriously considering selling his house to pay his medical bills.

I do wonder, though, how many other work comp claims have been denied, leaving people who work for the well being of our society's most helpless - bankrupted by work related medical bills.

Thank you, Press, for bringing this outrage to national light.

Happy Birthday to an Autism Advocate

Happy birthday, Sally.  I don't know which number birthday it is, but I am so glad, after your battle with cancer that you are being given additional opportunities for birthdays.

You have done so much for the autism community in this area.  And now you have to deal with a random force of nature.  In September, Tropical Storm Lee dumped massive amounts of rain on your neighborhood. Flooding resulted.  Your neighborhood, along with several others, are now local synonyms for disaster.

I drove through a couple of blocks of your neighborhood for the first time since the floods today, heading towards a shopping destination.  The exit from the highway has been open for a couple of weeks now but I just didn't want to go there. There is still so much work to be done in your neighborhood, Sally.  There are still porta potties on several street corners, I see..  In one yard, or what used to be a yard I guess, a large tent was sheltering people preparing lunch for the neighborhood.

I think of you and your children living in the middle of all that.

But I also know that you are not prone to self pity, Sally.  What I can hope is that karma, or whatever, will bring "normal" back to you-whatever normal is.  You've done so much for other people, especially the children and young adults of the Southern Tier with autism.  You deserve a very happy birthday.  I hope you got one, and had the time to enjoy it.

Next year HAS to be better!