Ryan Update

For those who have been reading my blog over the last few weeks, you know that our oldest son has been having problems in his current home setting. For those who may not have read those particular blog posts, I will give you a very quick synopsis. Ryan has Autism and about a year ago the agency providing services to him closed the home he was living in and moved him into a different home. We informed the agency that for various reasons, we didn't feel the new house would be a good fit for him, however, they told us we didn't have another option. We also advised them of the importance of Ryan visiting the new house on a daily basis. Again, our advice was not taken and after 1 visit of 1 hour, they moved him. While he handled things okay in the beginning, everything began to spiral downward. Ryan has not been happy in his new home, has acted out and made life pretty much miserable for everyone. The agencies lack of experience and desire to meeting the daily needs of an individual with Autism has not helped matters at all and Ryan has suffered the most. Several months ago we decided it was time to start the search for another agency within the state that would be better equipped to work with Ryan. Our search lead us to an agency in the Chicago area and after trading many emails and phone calls we had a meeting with them last week. They came down to meet Ryan, see where he has been living for the last year, and to talk to us about every aspect of Ryan's life. The meeting went extremely well. Then yesterday we were informed by the agency currently providing services to Ryan, that they are closing the house he's living in next month. They have given us approximately 5 weeks notice of the closure of his house. So, I made a phone call to the Chicago based agency to let them know Ryan would be moving yet again and today we had a second meeting with the agency. We have had a favorable outcome as a result of these meetings and they are very interested in taking Ryan as a client. So, on September 21st we will be taking Ryan to visit one of their homes. What's even better is that he may not have to move to the Chicago area, which would be a minimum of a 2 hour drive for us. Instead, the goal is to move him to one of their homes about 30 miles from us. Until our meeting last week, we had no idea they had any homes this close. While things are certainly looking up, nothing is done yet and now we have a huge deadline looming overhead, but we will continue to advocate for Ryan and do what we feel is within his best interest.

I will keep everyone posted as things move forward and hopefully they will move forward quickly.