Saturday, August 6, 2011

Employment First

I went to the meeting about our state's Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities Employment First Initiative. I was there as a parent of a child with Autism. We spent the entire day coming up with major goals to move our system in that direction. We even had time to flesh out the goals with steps.

Different comments amused me during the day. One of the comments was that employment should be one of the first things that everyone looks at. One guy said, "After all I was never given the option of getting a job or not."

Now before everyone gets upset, it is true isn't it? Yes I know that there are issues to work through like how to plan for losing part of their SSI checks and making sure people do not lose their medicaid eligibilty.

After all if you lose medicaid eligibility your child may lose waiver services if your child has them. But their are ways to plan for these issues.

I have said it for years. A job, any job, no matter how small gives someone something to build their life around. It gives them something to think about and a boost to their self esteem.

I definitely want both daughters with Autism, well and anyone with any disability to be able to experience those things. Who know it could help with their behavior in alot of ways. I know people that it has helped.

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