What’s life like for Arkansas families who have children with severe mental disabilities such as autism? One mom was telling me the following story:
“I got home from work with my three children, two 8-year-old twins who have severe autism and a small baby. I turned on the oven for a frozen pizza when one of the older boys pointed towards the bathroom. He wanted to use the potty but needed help. While I was in the potty helping the child who is not fully toilet trained, the other twin impulsively opened the oven and the baby crawled in. Luckily the oven hadn’t heated up, but how am I supposed to manage these kids while waiting for Medicaid waiver?”
Her story points to the extreme difficulties of families with severely autistic children. Her sons won’t be enjoying the summer off, because at their disability level there are no summer programs or after school programs in Arkansas. In fact the mother is unable to work regularly because of their needs.
The proposed Arkansas autism waiver has been suggested for ages 0 to 10, but these twins may never get in since they’re on the older side of the age range. The proposed waiver also would not include respite care or physical modifications to the home to ensure safety. A cold-turkey ending to services is also not going to work for the severely autistic.
Arkansas education programs are also only targeting young children, but middle and high school children are not currently served.
I think the proposed autism waiver only meets the needs of young, moderately disabled children. Yes, cases like these twins are going to be more expensive to treat. But is it really going to save Arkansas money to institutionalize these kids?