Voc/Rehab...they are soooo slow

DDD

Well-Known Member
I'm a bit of an independent "get it done" kinda person and dealing with government is driving me nuts. Even difficult child can tell that I was stressing when we sat there at the counselors desk and she reiterates that "these forms have to be completed before anything else happens" "you will be called in when signatures are needed" etc. etc.

Politely I finally asked "do you expect to have these forms completed for our signature in weeks or months".........the lady looked shocked that I would even ask. "I hope it won't be more than two weeks." FOUR PAGES to fill in by copying info from the neuro-psychiatric!!!! :(

Yes, this is another GRIPE. :redface: I'm proud of myself. I wanted to say "why don't you and difficult child go have a coke and when you get back it will be ready for signatures!" I kept my mouth shut. I said "thank you". I took difficult child to his Mom's.........and THEN..........I came home and poured a Cutty. DDD
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Welcome to my world.
At the 2 wk mark, I e mail and ask where we are and is there anything I can do to move the process along. It seemed to help a little.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Oh DDD....you just havent met red tape yet! Wait till you get introduced to SS and Medicare and Medicare Part D...omg...you need a college degree in those programs!
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
:( Janet, GFGmom is "the expert" in those areas........especially getting disability and other entitlements. All I'm trying to do is get difficult child educated/trained so he can lead an independent life. He turned 18 in Oct. and GFGmom is "deep" in the disability application. She has to make her car payments somethow, I guess. GAG. DDD
 
Last edited:

JJJ

Active Member
I found that it is best when dealing with the government to act slightly slow and roll right past them. When I had to get the paperwork pulled together for Kanga's grant application, I met with the govt worker assigned to "assist" in completing our application. When I realized that it was going to take her a month to do something I could do in two days, I just took care of it myself and submitted it to the appropriate people. I always try to get ahold of the forms ahead of time and have them completed. I just act so sorry that I didn't understand that they were suppose to do the forms and I ask them to look at them with me to make sure they don't need any more information. I thank them profusely for their help. They are usually so overworked that they then just sign the paper to get it off their desk.

The best was a women in our post-adoption unit who kept telling me she'd have it done in two days and two weeks later she hadn't even started. So I went around her with my "clueless mom who doesn't understand chain of command" act and got the post-adoption clinical services in place. She called me the day after I had gotten our clinical review scheduled (the last step in getting services). She was so ticked - "I told you I was getting to it." I explained that while she was "getting to it" I was trying to save my children's lives. Highlight, she called last week (14 months later) because she had finally gotten to it :rolleyes:

Glad the Cutty's seemed to help.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I would have loved to see the look on the lady's face when you asked that question. Why do they have to make things so difficult? Argh!
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
DDD, I too have found that JJJ's approach works really well.

husband has the bimbo-parent thing down pat when dealing with the bureaucracy. He gives them a confused little smile, blinks those big blue eyes at them slowly, and then rolls right over all the rules and regs.

I am amazed at how quickly he's managed to get government services pushed through, just by repeating, "But, I don't understand..." over and over and over.

Good luck. And yes, make it a double.

Trinity
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
:surprise: Seriously, I hope I misunderstood this lady. The way she described it (very slowly and softly with a look of compassion) "the next step is that we fill in these forms showing what steps we have agreed to undertake".

difficult child and I did a quick glance. "First we agree that it is important to get a high school diploma." Pause. Pause. I said "yes, May 30th is graduation".\ She quietly said "so it looks like you will attain that goal"..smile. "Then we list each of the other goals." Pause Pause "You want to see some more education"...Pause. I said "yes, as we shared with you he is enrolled at the community college for a Bridge Program this summer". Pause. Smile. "So we can put on the report that you plan to attend a program.......

THEN after this lamebrained slow, drawn out, reiteration of what difficult child and I have shared with her, she emphasizes that we CAN NOT alter the plan unless we sit together to update the plan........BECAUSE the PLAN gets distribtuted as it is and it can NOT be changed. Good Grief. If it takes six months to fill in a plan for three months, I assume difficult child may have an AA before he is 40 and after I've been pushing daisies for 10 or 20 years. DDD
 
Top