Category: AExceLearning Behavorial Services agency

Last Day with ABEST

Posted on by MICHELLE N
Last 4 days with Ms. Han and Tracy at the day care

Today, Friday,  is the last day William has the session at the day care with ABEST; Ms. Tracy is the BT today.  Today concludes 9 months of receiving services from ABEST.  I’d say we’re very pleased with the services that ABEST provided; I’m really sad that all the good staffs left and that we have no choice to find a new vendor.

Saying good bye to the people that we love is always hard.   I waited on Thursday at the day care to see Ms. Han to say good bye to her;  I prepared to express our appreciation to her but when I saw her, just the thought of not seeing her again brought tears to my eyes so all I could say was “Thank You Em” while giving her a hug and then I turned around to get back into my car.  I sat there an watched her walking thru the side door of the school to get into William’s classroom.  Ms. Han replied “I like William a lot!”.

I wish that we have some pictures of William and all ABEST staffs but with school policy of no photos/videos, we don’t have any pictures at all.  Monday 3/12/2018 Ms. Nhu will come to pick up the binder; and that will be the last person from ABEST that we see.

Ms. Han’s notes from the session
Ms. Han’s notes from the session
Ms. Annie’s notes from her last session with William at the day care, dated 1/25/2018.

Process To Switch ABA Vendor

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that ABEST doesn’t have staffs for William at home; we’re looking for the new vendor.   I searched Google , picked 2 from the list and called them; left them (CARD) a voice message, few days past with no return calls from them.

 

Tues 3/6/2018.   Called Cal Optima to check on the status; the lady said it’s in PENDING status, which means it’s not being reviewed yet; and that I should call back in a few days to check.  I already told ABEST that the last day of their service is Fri 3/9; looks like it takes a while for CalOptima to process our switching vendor request; which means the  approval for TasKids to start service might not arrive next week.  So William might not have any ABA services at all (home or day care) until TasKids receives the authorization from Cal Optima.

No More Sessions At Home With ABEST

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Today Thursday is the last session with Selestie, which is also the last session with ABEST at home because they don’t have any available staffs for us.

So until we can successfully switch to the new vendor, William will not have any ABA sessions at home.  At the day care Ms. Han and Ms. Tracy still continue to be there until the last day of service with ABEST, which we don’t know when yet.

I’m really sad that our relationship with ABEST is about to end.  They had a great team for William case but they lost it.  I’m worried that the team at the new vendor will not be as good; but I guess we have no choice now.  We can’t just wait for ABEST to find new staffs; and there’s no guarantee that the new staffs are good either.

ABEST Team Is Falling Apart

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday morning.  It’s Valentine’s day but it’s also a sad day for us. Ms. Nhu called me around 10:00 AM and delivered the bad news that Kevin (the supervisor) already left the company this week, Annie (who was William’s Behavorial Technician from the beginning and now that she’s promoted to supervisor, she has been parent training Tim for about 2 months)  is also leaving the company end of this month.  It’s getting worse when I was told Ms. Selestie who has been William’s BT for every night at home for the past 3 months also thinking about leaving too.  Which means the team that we love so much is about to leave us soon; and the worse news is that ABEST doesn’t have any available staffs to teach William at home.  One thing I’m glad is that Ms. Han and Tracy will still be with William at the day care from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Ms. Nhu also said that it’s ok if I want to look for another vendor; and I should look soon before July.  Because after July, RCOC will transfer all the cases to CalOptima, then it’s gonna be harder to find a vendor.

I cried when I heard the news while still on the phone with her.  I just love every one in this team so much, they’re all good teachers to William; and my boy has learned so much from them.  It’s heart breaking to see such a good team falling apart.

I also felt bad for Ms. Nhu, she’s a very dedicated and passionate about this work.  It’s a small company so she handles everything from recruiting to billing and doing paperwork.  It must be tough for her that 3 staffs are leaving at the same time.   Because of her I decided to stay and wait until she can find a new BT for William.

Thursday 2/15/2018.  Evening session with BT Selestie at home as usual.

Ms. Selestie told me to keep this as a secret that Ms. Nhu also is leaving the company in 2 months!  I was so shock; I just simply thought it’s the staffs that are leaving; never thought the company is not doing well.  Not sure what the reason is but Ms. Nhu is 1 of the most important person in the company; and if she leaves, there’s no one else can run the company.  Once again I felt sad for Ms. Nhu; she invested lots of her time and energy into this company; she must feel really bad.  I always admire her passion about helping children with autism; that’s why she opened this company with hoping that she can do better than other companies.  I wish I could do something to help her and bring the company back.

William of today is totally different than William of 8 months ago.  Thanks to all wonderful BTs from ABEST that William has progressed so much at the rate that everyone is amazed; especially Ms. Han and Annie who have been there with William from the beginning.  8 months sounds like a long time but to us it’s not that long.  I really missed those days when there were times 3 or even 4 staffs came to our house at once.  I still remembered we talked and laughed.

I’d like to list the name of all ABEST staffs here so that I won’t forget:

Ms. Nhu, Ms. Nhi, Ms. Jody, Ms. Annie, Ms. Han, Ms. Selestie, Ms. Tracy (she just started with William for 2 weeks), Mr. Kevin (supervisor).

It’s so hard to say goodbye!

First Day Back to Day Care After Holidays Break

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Morning Day 2 of the New Year, 2018; I have to work so I took William to Children World Preschool (Mitchell school is still on break until Jan 8, 2018 so William will spend his time at the day care full day this whole week).

Menu for this week, today lunch is served with Beans & Bacon with sandwich, I don’t think William would want to eat.

ABEST still have not received the authorization from Cal-Optima for William’s ABA services yet so there won’t be any Behavioral Technician coming to the daycare for William.   2 months contract with Magellan has ended on 12/31/2017 so ABEST is waiting for the new contract from Cal-Optima because Magellan is not handling ABA services anymore as of 1/1/2018.  If ABEST doesn’t receive the new contract soon, William will no longer receive any ABA services at the day care; However the sessions at home is still on.

I hope ABEST will receive the new contract soon; otherwise William will spend the whole day at the daycare without any BT to help him.

Allergic Reaction to Peanut Butter

Posted on by MICHELLE N

4:45 pm Ms. Nhu from ABEST called telling me that William at the day care was scratching all over his body;  Celestie was the Behavoral Technician  with William at the time.

I called Mr Gary but he did not answer.  Few minutes later he returned my call and his first words were “Your son is fine”.  Then he told me that William threw up, and his eyes starting to get swollen and he was scratching all over his body.  He gave him some Benadryl which I think helped a lot because by the time Tim picked him up, he was scratching less, his eyes still swollen though.  He said he asked Celestie if she gave William some peanut butter chocolate but she said no.  They just had a photo session with Santa Clause at the day care, and Santa gave out peanut butter chocolate and candies to the kids.  Mr. Gary believed that William must eat some of it; otherwise he’d not be allergic like this.

Then when Tim picked him up; Ms. Celestie asked to talk to me on the phone.  She said sorry that she did not know that William is allergic to peanut butter so when William asked for it, she gave it to him.  William took 1 bite then threw the chocolate away. Soon after that he threw up (I’m not sure who changed his clothes but he got home with school clothes on him) and 10 minutes later he started to feel itchy.   She said Sorry so many times.   I’m just so glad that William is fine after this incident.   According to Mr. Gary, he did not have trouble breathing at all so that’s a big relief.

When I got home from work and found that William was happy as usual, jumping up and down; his eyes were still swollen and he scratched his body here and there but other than that, nothing is serious.  And most importantly I don’t see he has breathing problem at all.

And this happened just a few days before Christmas!

New Funding Source For ABA Services Begins

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Nov 1, 2017.  We got approval from Magellan at the last minute before the month of Oct ended; the contract from Magellan is valid till end of this year which means we have 2 months with Magellan.  Then after that we need to get approval from Cal-Optima because according to Ms. Nhu, Magellan will no longer handle ABA Services for Cal-Optima beginning Jan 2018.

 

ABA Session In the Community

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Sat 11:00 AM at Fountain Valley  Promenade.

Halloween is approaching so I asked Mrs. Nhu if it’s ok to have ABA session while William going Treat or Trick on the Halloween day so she suggested to cancel the Friday session and have the session on  Saturday at the shopping center in Fountain Valley.  We agreed to meet Ms. Han in front of the Albersons supermarket.

I dressed William up as a car racer Lightning McQueen and took him to the meeting place.  10 minutes passed 11:00 I still didn’t see Ms. Han anywhere, turned out she went to wrong location and was waiting for us there.  So while waiting for Ms. Han to come to us, I took William for Treat or Trick.  At first William did not want to walk but I told him we could get candy if he walked so he started to comply.  We walked along the shopping center and went in each store to get candy.  William had a hard time to pick the candy when people presented a bowl of candy in front of him.   Also when people hand him the candies he reached out his hand to take it instead of showing his basket so that they can put the candies in.  It was his first time so maybe he was overwhelmed and did not know what to do.  It struck me that I did not teach him that!

We found a table near by the pizza place, so we sat down to rest and let William enjoyed his earned candies.

Few minutes later Ms. Han found us; we continue our way to knock on the stores for more candies.  It was about noon so we decided to go back to the pizza place and have lunch there.  I bought a slice of pizza and 1 drink for William.  We found a cozy corner inside the restaurant and ate lunch there.  William kept standing on the chair and go under the table; until I let him watched the Winnie the Pooh clips that he sat still.  There’s a game room inside the pizza shop so we let William play in the game room after lunch.

We left the place around 1:30 PM.

New ABA Staff – E. Afzal

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday 5:30 PM.

As I was told before, today we met a new ABA technician named E. Afzal; she’s a young Indian lady.   Supervisor Kevin came too.  William mostly came to Kevin, I guess because he needs time to make acquaintance with Ms. Afzal.  At first I didn’t see her smile  but maybe she was nervous being with a new client?  Later on she smiled more but I’m not sure if William likes her yet.

Later Mrs. Nhu came to talk about the situation with Magellan: we still have not heard from Magellan yet and the contract with RCOC is about to expire in 2 weeks.  I’m a little bit worried.