Got My Back Up

On Thursday, we had a great meeting with Precious’ occupational therapist, physical therapist and vice principal. By ‘we’, I mean me, as DH was flat on his back; a victim of the same virus that has been plaguing our family for the last 4 weeks.

Precious’ teacher and her speech and language pathologist were both absent from the meeting, as one had an appointment and the other was sick.

The occupational therapist (OT) and physical therapist (PT) had both recently assessed Precious for the first time and they both seemed to understand pretty well where she is developmentally. They both had new ideas for activities we can do with Precious to help her and they are incorporating these into the school. I was pleased to see how supportive the vice principal was.

Since transferring to school, Precious is now in transition between two different care providers, hence the new OT and PT. We met the new case manager and she took notes at the meeting and generally organized everything, which I really appreciated.

The one thing that bothered me was the sheets that came home from both therapists and the case manager. In several places, they stated something like “your child will be discharged from our care if you do not comply with our program recommendations at home.”

That really got my back up for three reasons:

1. It implies that I wouldn’t want to do the work at home to help my child reach her goals.

2. It implies that if I didn’t agree with what they suggest for my child that their decision would take precedence over mine. Who knows her better: them or me?

3. It implies that they have some kind of right to check up on me and/or see what we’re doing at home with our child.

DH tried to calm me by telling me this was just a standard clause, but I’m not buying it. I’m not going to hold it against either of the therapists or the case manager, but I will be bringing it up when I am asked for feedback about the process. I think it’s unduly confrontational and violates the precedence I believe the parents have over the care of their child.

2 Responses to Got My Back Up