This, coupled with the closure (finally!!!) of Fillmore Place, an assisted living facility in Petersburg, VA, are just two examples of how little our country cares for its disabled and senior citizens. They are basically a "burden" on society, to be shunted aside into Dickensian conditions, unless someone has the money and time to look after them and keep after the agencies who are supposed to care for them.
It took us three years to get our ASD son into an agency where he would be looked after, and even then we had to keep a hawk's eye on things. Now it's mainly his sister who does, since she's closer than I am. And some of the people we have to deal with are still clueless. His apartment manager, for instance, even though she has the numbers to call, will call family for problems she knows damn well should be handled by his social worker.
Yesterday I was talking to one of the workers at the shelter who I'm pretty friendly with. She has an ASD brother who is currently living with her and I was commiserating with her a bit as well as explaining how to go about getting him into the system to get him into his own place. She said that their mother, who is a German national, is planning to take him back to Germany as soon as his passport comes through. He was born there and educated there through first grade and German was his first language. She said that the German government isn't like ours at all. It just views taking care of the disabled as taking care of its citizens. (I gathered that her brother still has dual citizenship through his mother, since he was born there.) It would be nice if the US felt that way.
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