My name is Lauren Farmer and I am a special needs parent to my Autistic son Rhett who received a diagnosis in December at 22 months from a wonderful developmental pediatrician at CHLA.
For the past 7 years I have been a sales/marketing consultant and owner of my own creative agency. Moving forward, I am dedicating my time to use the skills I learned as an entrepreneur to advocate for my son and the other special needs families I have met over the past 6 months. I am new here...but I am resourceful and relentless and I am not afraid to ask for help. This is where you come in.
If you're reading this, you were likely sent the link from myself or a colleague and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to assist a mother desperate for answers.
In January, I was referred to Cortica by a Neuromuscular Physician who had heard good things about a newer clinic offering a unique approach of diagnostic and therapy services all availably in one center. It seemed like the answer to our prayers, people who knew how to guide us and help us. I was excited to hear that they had just received $60 million in funding to expand across the United States.
After waiting 7 weeks for an ABA assessment I was informed during the meeting that Cortica did not have ABA staff readily available in my area like they had advertised online, as they were having a hard time hiring. In addition, In order for our family to move forward with the ABA assessment and be put on the official waitlist, we had to sign a statement saying we would stop 10 hours of 1:1 in-home Early Intervention services for my son so that Cortica could bill us for parent training. I immediately stated I was concerned about that policy but wanted to proceed with the assessment as we had already waited 7 weeks and I would escalate my concerns to leadership.
I am not a developmental pediatrician, BCBA, pediatrician, RBT or child psychologist. But I do know that removing 1:1 in-home early intervention from a toddler and offering to replace it with virtual parent training is NOT a responsible recommendation for a provider to special needs parents.
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