2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration internet kitzhaber language law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

Hi, my brother has autism and mental retardation and was in special ed for all of his schooling. He's 29 now and it's really hard to find something for him to do during the day. His high school (Westview, 2001 grad) worked hard to help him be more independent and he was employed at a couple different places while in school but is not currently. We just found him a day program a couple days a week which he loves. He does participate in Special Olympics and has friends but it's pretty lonely a lot of the time. Even though he lives at home and work hard to engage him in everything we do it's hard for him to get his own life. He's a great person and social but jobs are hard to find. He does have difficulties with communication and social skills as well as transitions due to his disabilities. He does use a cell phone but is not able to ride the regular bus and only recently is able to reliably call and answer the phone. He's not the only one in his group of friends who isn't employed right now and many people are working for less than minimun wage. Frankly there just isn't much out there and families work really hard to make sure we give our family members the best possible support. We really want to make more options for people. Not everyone wants to work in a workshop type setting for less than minimum wage. So that's something we really want to work on. I'm in school for Occupational Therapy right now; my goal is to help reform transitions from both family and professional levels.

Elisabeth

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
view in context