thinking of moving to NC

[Guest guest]

I am in Lake county....

Hello - I am looking for information and help in regard to our son

. He is 13 and becoming hard to handle on our own, and so

far in Ohio we have not found much help. We have visited NC in the

past and had considered moving and then jobs in Ohio kept us here

another 7 years. I am not working now, however, and my husband is

looking for a new job. We will be losing our transitional medicaid

in September and my unemployment will also be running out then. So

we are considering looking for work in NC as well as we thought that

might be a good move.

We have sought temporary placement for our son here in Ohio -

somewhere we can have him stay when he's having difficult behavior

issues (such as one month ago when he was hitting everyone in the

house because he had a bad ear infection). We found out that there

is NO where in our area that does this. We were told to get any help

like that we basically have to sign over custody which we don't feel

prepared to do at this time. We are still hoping to find

medical/treatment avenues to help him become more manageable and well-

behaved and functional, and don't wish to give up on him! But his

behavior is again becoming very challenging where he's starting to

hit me again a little and also broke a large glass bowl by slamming

it into an antique table at my mother in law's house, causing

thousands of dollars damage (which also could have hurt someone but

luckily no one was standing there).

We have sought in home help but only so far qualify for what Ohio

calls " Core " medicaid (which also will expire in September along with

our insurance). This is 14 hours a week of help. We have sought the

Ohio Home Care Waiver but were turned down because they said Chris

doesn't have any medical needs. We also sought MRDD waiver but are

on the list but told there's probably a 20 year waiting list. We

have looked at residency options and so far believe that we have to

pay for them ourselves unless we sign him over and give up custody.

When we visited NC in 1997 we were lookinga at TEACCH. We since got

TEACCH at our schools and kept him in Ohio. However, it seems I

remember learning that NC (Charlotte, at least) had a lot of programs

for older autistic children adults and I cannot remember what they

are. Is this a worthwhile option for us to look into?

We just want to know if it would be worth it to move to NC or if you

really don't have any more options than we do in OHio. We are broke

and we couldn't afford to move twice. Just hate to jump from the

frying pan into the fire, so to speak!

THanks for your input - I appreciate it!

dori, mom to , 13, autism, Colleen, 9, ADD, , 2 speech

delay.