Our LilyTree

Throughout the past few months I’ve been amazed at the support locally for children with special needs and for their families.  I’ve made comments to people saying as such and have felt extremely lucky to live in the community I do.

From the moment we were diagnosed, we’ve been taken care of. I decided I’d like to share our experience working with local hospitals, caregivers, and service providers. So each week, I’ll write about our experience, will share links and suggestions, and will discuss the knowledge gained.  I hope it helps someone.

You may recall how we recently began respite care this past Saturday. We’re working with Easter Seals, a wonderful organization.  We were matched with a caregiver who enjoys working with babies specifically, and met with her prior to our first day. She came to our home, familiarized herself with Rowan, his needs, likes, dislikes, medicines, and diet. We were thrilled after meeting her. We felt comfortable with our caregiver instantly and feel Easter Seals matched us with just the right person for Rowan.

Here’s how it works: Our worker at Southeast Human Services determined we were eligible for Respite care- the hours you receive will depend on your needs, your child’s needs and diagnosis, and on the funding you receive. They allotted us a certain numbers of hours to use quarterly, which can be re-calculated at a later date if needs change.

We established a Saturday schedule with our caregiver, who explained that we don’t have to use an exact number of hours each Saturday.  If we’re out of town or if we have a special situation, we can use more or less- or don’t even have to use at all.  We just need to make sure we use our allotted hours during the quarter…

We plan to use our respite time to tackle errands, such as grocery shopping, and to spend quality time with Lily.

Our caregiver is versed in working with babies having special needs and understands all that encompasses that.

You can contact Fargo Easter Seals here:

Easter Seals Goodwill ND, Inc.
15 South 21 Street
Suite 105
Fargo,  ND   58103

Web Site:   www.esgwnd.org
E-mail:   jslavinsky@esgwnd.org
Phone: 701 237-9908
Toll Free Phone: 866 895-1588
Fax: 701 234-9390

Primary Contact:

CEO:

Services offered at Easter Seals Goodwill North Dakota, Inc.

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012, 9:43 pm   |   Special Needs Support  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback