so you wait 9 months for an OT appointment...

[mummysaurus]

and when you finally get your assessment the OT tells you brightly that your dc is behind and does need help and she'll send some photocopies of exercises for you to do with your dc. And that's it.

So obviously my local health authority is placing great faith in us parents. The same OT told me that she'd trained for 4 years so how can we be expected to do what she can do with the help of a piece of paper?

I said to her that in theory I could probably do dental work on my kids or give them an eye test and make some glasses with aid of google and a few rudimentary tools but that nobody would think that appropriate or adequate.

Also it seems her ideas centre round playing outside, painting, cooking etc. He does loads of this anyway with me and at nursery and it would be hard for me to do more than i do as i have a v demanding 1 year old as well.

we are lucky to be able to afford for him to go once a fortnight to a v good private 0T but at 60 quid an hour its not cheap.

She did sort of agree it was rubbish but there is no actual treatment for anyone at the moment and is going to give me some info on how to complain.

ok rant over - thanks for reading

It makes me so when the health profs recognise a child has difficulty but then says sorry - can't offer any treatment or therapy! Bollocks - What other area of NHS HA do they get away with it.
If you go to the GP with varicous veins & piles they don't send you packing without treatment.

There is always a budget & services available you just have to SHOUT to get it.
Ask the head of OT or paediatric services at you local HA to provide you with eligibility criteria for accessing therapy & don't let them fob you off with 6 monthly assessments.

Than let them justify to you why your child does not meet the criteria.
Hoestly good OT & Physio make a huge difference, I honestly do not believe my ds2 would be functioning as well as he is now without his intensive pre school OT input.

It is worth fighting for.

& another way of accessing pre school services may be via the local sn schools.

If your child is at nursery/preschool check if the local sn schools offer an outreach service to ms settings & home.
This was also hugely benificial, by-passing nhs cdc waiting lists. The child does not need to be statemented to access support all they need is referal from an existing professional or pre school SENCO advisor.

Thanks for all the replies.

starlight My one year old today came and sat on the puzzle my ds was trying to do and then repeatedly tore up the tracks on his trainset. no wonder she gets a push every time i turn my back.

i was on mat leave when we started the assessment and we did have a lot of appoinments. He got a place at a S&L nursery who i think got him further up the ot list for what its worth.

Anonandilikeit - I'm hoping you are right about SN nursey being key in helping sort out provision. so far mumsnet has been my guru and i've downloaded/bought loads of material.

Sweetgrapes - sometime I think I should give up work but I'm frightened of becoming a long term full time carer - I'm far too selfish for that.

i'm back at work three days a week now. long days leaving at seven thirty and not back till seven. on the other days i try but i must admit i've not been the diy therapist i thought i would be. my one year old being such a bad sleeper is a killer. I do feel guilty about that but i'm not superwoman

briochedior - my ds is a draper too. and he twiddles my hair all the time - drives me mad

YOu know, if work matters to you keep at it- I always wanted to be a SAHM when the older boys were small (I worked v long hours) and I am grateful but there is something about the lack of choice and isolation of being a carer that can be quite bleak. if I ahd the option I wopuld probably choose to stay here- but the option would be worth lots, IYSWIM? As a PT worker you could well have the best of both worlds.

I would say complain, IIRC enough people complained about the local service just before we joined the list that they recruited a Locum OT to get eeryone seen properly. I can't say mine and their definitions of properly merged very much (I spent a lot of time giving them handouts on harnesses etc ) but even a name and a number is valuable.

Mummysaurus, I'm going back to work part-time after school hols (I start 10th Nov). Just doing 15 hours a week across 3 days, as this allows me to be home in time to pick DD up from school. Kind of HAD to take such a flexible opportunity IYSWIM. Feeling very guilty about it, but I know it will do me good to do something other than deal with the kids because sometimes when I get stressed and frustrated it rubs off on them because I'm not the calmest most well-organised person anyway.

Just found this thread and I hope that someone can explain about OT being either delivered by the NHS or the LEA?

I didn't even know that OT was available via the LEA.

DD has been seen by the NHS. She has not been discharged, but has no more OT sessions booked, as her Therapist is leaving and surprise, surprise! they have no one to replace her, so DD is still on their books but not receiving therapy. I have loads of photocopies of exercise to do but I am not a professional and she was having Sensory Integration Therapy in a proper SI room,which I don't have!

Her Proposed Statement puts OT as non-educational and I want it in Part 3, as I can see how helpful it has been for DD.

So how do I go about getting her more OT from the LEA?

DD has ASD, DCD/dyspraxia and MLD

You're going to haev to refure the proposed statement as it stands and ask for the OT to be added I think, maybe a call to SOS!SEN or IPSEA first?

I haven't come across LEA OT here btw,our OTT went to the schools (only assessments, one at each palcement). But I would definitely try and get it in the statement.

briochedoree
Good luck with the job - sounds great. i do like working but my problem is my job description is the same as other people's who work full time so it's impossible but i can't complain or i'll have to up my hours.

bobbingforpeachys - i've seen some of your posts so i know you have a lot on your plate. Funnily enough i actually take comfort from the fact i don't have a choice - i have to work as my dh doesn't earn enough to pay for even our modest house and lifestyle.

Welcome to the NHS ladies.

I must say though, raising issue of having other kids is beside the point. The NHS can't help the fact that you have other kids. You just have to find or make the time.

I do therapy with my dd every single day and I have another child, a f/t job, lotso f other professional commitments and a dh who is away for weeks on end.

If my dh was about it would be a piece of cake frankly.

Re OT in part 3 of statemnt, check out 'B versus Isle of Wight 1997' on IPSEA website.
Plenty of useful ammunition.

Here

My personasl view is that a great deal of 'therapy' offered is common sense.

By packaging it as 'specialist provision' parents are deskilled and made to feel reliant on 'experts' and helpless effectively.

Take charge of your destiny and ask if endless round of appts. is necessary.If not, don't go.
I like the parable of the little red hen, message being, do it yourself.

i got told by ot , well crry on what your doing and btw im leaving and theres none to replace me.Mind not exactly going to miss her input 2 hrs over 2 years

mummysaurua - yes the full time carer when dd is older thing scares me too. I am planning to go back into work now that both she and ds are going to school.
I don't want to be the only person who can handle her when she's older. It's difficult enough now - 10 years down the line I will be less able to deal with her and want to be able to hire someone on my terms not just when SS decided I need respite...

Yes, moondog, I have realised that too. The best therapy is actually at home with me because I can do it all the time. And now that ds is older they both get it.
She needs exercises with clothes pegs for her fine motor so they both help me put the washing up. Not as easy as it sounds - it takes oodles of patience and double the time (at best) but things like that done when ever possible helps.
The physical play types also we do together - wheelbarrow walking, bouncing on the ball, cycling in the air etc

You know MD, there's alot of assumptions you are making about us there.

I'd happily do the aprent therapist bit- always did but chucked it in eventually becuase I can't work out which of the three to do at any one time.

Seriosuly.

Each one (AS,ASD< Dyspraxia /ADD under assessment) has a program that would take all the energy I have, plus the toddler.

Sometimes, coping is what you can manage. I'm looking into ABA / TEACCH / DIR partly through the MA, but won't be hiring anyone on a student grant, part time income and CA income level (so whatever it is we go with, won't be the same as if only one of them were disabled or had SEN.

And there ain't nowt I can do about that.

I recognise your case is particularly difficult Peachy.I also recognise that it is not easy to carry out therapy with other small children present. What I am saying is that addressing this is beyond the remit of the NHS and therapists working at the frontline.

That's fair enough- I just thought it came across as a bit 'well I can do it so there'.

Nail on the head Starlight 'do the best you can, with what youve got'. Seems to be all about coping with behaviour, rather than treating the cause.

Fair enough Star.
You know whose side I am on.I'm just pointing out what is and isn't the remit of the 'professionals'.

And yes, Claw, it is always reactive, never proactive, which might cost more initially but which is ultimately more sustainable and cheaper in the long run.

You have to plan around naps, or put the little one in front of the tv or get your dh involved or get an aunt/grandparent to sit in for a bit or pay a teenager to mind the little one.

Yes indeedy.
May I recommend this fantastic book
here which I am buying by the truckload at present?

As the former US Education secretary Willliam Bennett said
there are greater more certain and more immediate penatlies in this country for serving up a rotton hamburger in a restaurant than repeatedly furnifhing a thousand school-children with a rotton education.'

I've pinned it to my notice board.

Yes, weasel words like 'outreach' and 'holistic support' make me want to punch people hard.
And repeatedly.