Akbash Acres

I have just finished attending the Washington State Traumatic Brain Injury conference (and have the carry-all bag to prove it). My partner has gone the last two years, but I have been unwilling to loose the day's wages, to go to it with him. Now, with no job, and full scholarships available for both of us, I went. I attended many inspirational talks (which can get tiresome, after a bit), and took advantage of the free massage/energy work. I did attend a talk about the "Aging & Disability Resource Centers: Helping you connect with options for embracing life and living well." As D and I are both in our second half-century, he has mostly mental limitations, and I have developed physical limitations, we fit the target audience parameters. I started silently crying, and then my nose sprang a nosebleed. Of course. I have been SO frustrated by the inability to locate the services we need, starting clear back before he got home from the 6 month hospital/nursing home/inpatient rehabilitation stay in 2001-2002. My interests in biological sciences, and parents, grandparent, and sibling in medical fields, means that I can at least follow discussions of medical, physical, and mental statuses. But there were no state or federal government official in our family, no mealtime conversations about the difference between medicaid, and medicare. How can I have been on three different programs, paying for benefits for me, during the whole "foot issue", when I didn't change, and my financial status didn't change? And none of the cards I got issued were ever again referred to by the name on their front. So I NEVER knew what I was on, I would just have to tell doctor offices what the cards said. And then, they would look me up online, and say, "No, you don't qualify for this." "But someone at the state level told me I did", I would wail. Well, yes, I DID qualify for it, clear back in December, but that information didn't make it online, until mid-February. These new "Aging and Disability Resource Centers" have as a goal, helping people access services to stay in their homes, in their communities. (It's cheaper than institutionalization). I have some hopes of being able to connect with more of the resources I need, to be able to stay in my own place. Place is so VERY important to me. I love this place I live, the piece I have custody of, and the city I live in.