2018 Year End Recap of Max's Medicaid Services & Other Activities

Quick and not polished, since one of the purpose here is life with an adult with autism :

• Max has a behavior management therapist.  Over time, he's had 3 behavior people, and this one has been with him the longest.  Being together a long time means Max is more comfortable, & more progress is made. They are working on using his words and coping skills (mainly, though not exclusively, deep breathing).
• We've had 4 different one on one providers taking Max out in the community.  Some only lasted a month or so.  The first, who was REALLY good with him, worked for 2 branches of the same company, but the other branch fired her.  We're looking into a private pay option for this now (and the company looking to hire someone for the job), because we're also looking into
• a sheltered workshop.  This is a Parenting Imperfect thing.  We visited twice, and the staff working with him said he did well, though obviously needing time to get comfortable, but i haven't been able to make myself keep contacting the intake coordinator & she hasn't gotten back with us.  Our case manager says she's worked with this individual before, & she's always been good at that. But i do know that i've got to be persistent with contacts.  MY contacting generally, is generally more successful than the professional's contacts.  So, a goal for the first week of the new year.
• One thing i've learned about Max is that, when i write his daily schedule for him, meals MUST be included.  Otherwise, he thinks there won't be any. My preference would be to put them in only if i know where & when, but that doesn't work.
• The greatest success of Max's Medicaid services is the music therapy.  i was kinda upset a couple of years ago when the speech therapist said she didn't think she had the skills & training to work with him, but we quickly began music therapy.  He's had the same therapist ever since (comfortable with each other), and they work on singing, playing instruments, and, surprisingly, breath control and speech volume.  Which last is what i thought the speech therapist would work with.

Other activities are the Village of Merici book club on Saturday mornings and community yoga classes.  We've initiated a similar book club at our church.  The current Saturday morning selection is Chasing Vermeer, and at church we're reading Mere Christianity.