Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Jane and I talk

So last week there was a bit of an email flurry surrounding Fiona.  The emails were really between Jane and her social workers but they were relating to me and Fiona's future which in a best case scenario is closer to us for long term stability.

Truthfully I am feeling no love from DCF.  This is a new case worker and I abhor being talked about.  I mean seriously you can see that I am being sent the same email by Jane, can you not actually address me?  But instead the caseworker wrote to Jane saying that we did not want guardianship of Fiona and therefore we had essentially little to no say in the matter of her future although she absolutely recognized what a FABULOUS resource we were for Fi.  Apparently Jane wrote back to that one and said something to the effect of could we recognize that they are family and stop the resource talk.  Bless her.  She didn't copy me on that one; she probably knew I was gnashing my teeth.

I did jump in myself on that one and as I wrote earlier indicated we never ever said we were not interested in guardianship. What I am mindful of is that Fiona will need expensive long term mental health supports and I know that my insurance does not adequately address her needs. I want to plan for her future in all areas and this is one of them and I asked how guardianship impacted her receipt of services.

Then I went away on a camping jaunt which I must write about at some point as it was very cool.  When I came back there was an email from the social workers supervisor that was written in such gobbledy good D#F speak that I truly did not know what she was saying. It didn't sound particularly warm or friendly or supportive.  There was something about our city not wanting to accept Fiona's case and some other data that I truly did not understand.

Tonight, Jane called. Fiona was off campus and she wanted to let me know that she was okay.  Sometimes a missed call signals an emotional crisis so I appreciated that.  Jane also explained a bit. She said she thought that we should still push for guardianship.  At 22 Fiona is no longer in DCF care anyway.  This is how old she will be upon graduating from the great school. So my city not accepting her case becomes moot because the overseeing agency will change and be overseen by the agency that takes care of developmental disabilities.  I suspect that formerly this was called DMR and has a new acronym that I don't know yet.

In Jane and the director of the school's opinion, this agency is more likely to factor in "best interest" for Fiona in her placement.  So this is a long winded way of saying that there is still hope and I will continue the email battle tomorrow!