Situational Assessment

We were still working on employment. I asked Louisiana Rehabilitation Services (LRS) for a situational assessment. If you remember LRS is our state's agency that does rehabilitation services. After a discussion about the situational assessment we were given the list of the providers in the area who could do it. There were three of them. One of the providers was one we tried to work with in the past. They spoke to Dominoe, looked at her file, and told us all they could offer was the day habilitation. Day habilitation in our area means sheltered workshop. I know people tell me it doesn't. I was working in this field when the sheltered workshops became day habilitation. The providers changed the name. The paperwork changed. The program didn't. I'm reminded of the story...if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it might be a duck. It was still a sheltered workshop. Anyway one of the other providers that could do the situation assessment was a one person company. She rarely worked with new people. So by process of elimination we choose the other company. I was present for the situational assessment. With a child with Autism someone needs to be there, at least in the beginning, to be able to provide accurate information and to explain some of the idiosyncrasies of the person. The situational assessment with the provider took one hour. We met in my daughter’s apartment for an hour. No one was present but the DSP, me, Dominoe, and the employment provider. Dominoe did have some job experience to talk about. She had worked for Burger King and Taco Bell. I’m sure we were able to provide some specific information about work about what she could do and could not do. Maybe other families didn’t have that kind of information. But an hour? After the meeting I called friends and professionals again to ask questions. They again were surprised and a little shocked at what I described. I was told that a situational assessment usually was done in a work setting, more than one work setting. The employment provider did tell LRS they thought they could help her get a job. Again I was waiting to see how this was going to work out.