We are in the process of trying to switch therapy companies for Collin. Hopefully, I will hear back soon when the meeting will be this month. I typed up my complaints/justifications and there was about a page and a half of problems/issues I have with our current company. I will copy & paste most of it here.
Some quick lingo definitions:
Fade out-when they want to reduce services slowly to eventually none(reduce Collin's hours & up mine because the state wants the parents to run the show so they don't have to pay for services) because they feel like the child doesn't need help anymore or making tons of progress. Collin's not there yet.
Flex-staffing: when a therapist is unable to make it, the company checks for any available therapist to make up the hours, even if they haven't worked with Collin before.
Stimming: not sure how to describe this, it's like being obsessed-usually involves lots of intense focus, with sensory input & shutting everything else out.
Echolalia: condition where phrases and words are said over and over again--this can go on for over 10 minutes at a time.
Mastered: acquired a skill and can do that skill in
any setting.
"This has nothing to do with the fade out. My husband and I have been talking about switching since before Christmas.
• Turnover rate: 3+ sets of therapists and parent trainers in past year and a half due to school, quitting, leaving company, etc. That's less than 6 months with any therapy team. I understand that the staff goes to school and is rotated thru, but that’s too many changes. Collin gets upset when anyone comes over to our house, therapy company or not.
• Cancellation policy is a double-standard. We try to give as early notification as possible, whereas there have been multiple times where we are called less than an hour before session because of therapists cancelling
•We’ve had property damage by Collin during therapy sessions and no one seems to care or even notify us if we weren’t in the same room. We have pictures of when he made a hole in the wall during a therapy session, and nobody said anything to us about it even though he was supposed to be supervised.
• Behaviors not being addressed or are being encouraged: throwing all his books on the floor from his bedroom bookshelf any time he’s in there and mad, his running off to his room to escape cleaning up or being asked to do something that is non-preferred, stimming off window (earned after session on Friday 1/27, which is just reinforcing the behavior),stimming off repeating phrases that it near impossible to get him to stop(these phrases are being reinfornced), defiance (near 3 months, never addressed). When I recently asked about these behaviors, I was told, “Kids like Collin, you can’t tell if a new behavior is going to come & go on its own or if it’s permanent”
• Flex-staffing: One time 1 of the therapists was out for 2 weeks. Company knew at least a month beforehand, and couldn’t find anybody to cover even with that much advanced notice. They claim they have it, but we’re never offered it. Other times we’ve called to reschedule & they never get back to us or say they don’t have anyone even if we offer different timeframe. We bend over backwards to make up session or accommodate time changes.
• Until late November, we were in the dark about his goals. Yes, the binder is at our house, but it should be discussed regularly what he’s working on and how he’s doing with his goals. They were only made known to us when fade out was first discussed. Currently, no goals are being discussed after sessions.
• Therapist not giving full supervision when needed. On 1/20, Collin almost flooded bathroom[sink was over ¾ full when mom went to go check] since therapist was not supervising hand washing—Collin left on water whole time, despite mom telling therapist to turn off the water. Also, see above regarding property damage.
• Saying skills are mastered & he can’t do them without therapists—among other things, shoe tying and supposedly pronouns(Collin says “Can I ride my back”? instead of “your” back)
• Too dependent on prompts—a lot of things are being model prompted every time by therapists. He is regressing back to finger pointing instead of using his words, and his echolalia has increased in the past two months.
• No strategies to deal with anger other than have him identify he’s mad/upset, and asking for person (if applicable) to leave him alone/give him space. It’s just not cutting it.
• Being asked in November about if we were willing to consider fading out. Our answer was a firm no. Yet, the first opportunity of therapy once we were back from Christmas vacation, it was the first thing mentioned to us. If they are so anxious to get rid of us, this only seals our previously made decision about switching companies.
• Training of the new therapist assigned to us. She was told by the supervisor that any video on YouTube via their smartphone was okay when Collin earns music on his schedule. I feel it would be better for us to be asked first what they are planning on using. The first music I overheard obviously had a video with it, something about a bikini. When is that appropriate for 2 young boys (brother was in the room at the same time)? I’ve since mostly corrected this myself by telling the therapist it’s not appropriate.
• Because we’ve been with company for so long, I feel like they’ve become too comfortable around us and slacking off. Ie. the less than 1 hour notification of changes, not addressing behaviors. When we first started working with them, we’d get calls ahead of time if supervisor or others from the office would be joining the therapy session. Normally it’s not a problem, but it got to the point where we were never notified, and it’d make Collin anxious (already was because of so many staff changes) and us too. We weren’t able to prime Collin about it first. This was recently corrected, but only for about a week. Collin really does not like our current team as well. He gets very angry and resentful when they come."
