[nagdu] A disaster of an SD program here in Kansas

[Gail]

Yes, I have several-PTSD, Asperger's Syndrome, Meneries' Disease,and a few
other things. But this caseworker is from our Independent Living Center,
over a town or two, and they are *supposed* to have someone help me with
things around the house I cant manage, but there is never anyone who will
work for what the ILC pays. At least they were able to help out with the
situation with our autistic son, to be something of a represinitive for him
in the meetings with school, school board and such, though the woman knew
nothing at all about autism, AS, or service dogs for the autistic. 
 
Gail 
 
-------Original Message------- 
 
From: Cheryl echevarria 
Date: 6/23/2010 6:01:08 PM 
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users 
Subject: Re: [nagdu] A disaster of an SD program here in Kansas 
 
Gail: 
 
Am I missing something, do you have other disabilities other than blindness,

Been out of the loop a little bit. 
 
Cheryl Echevarria 
Independent Travel Consultant 
C10-10646 
 
http://Echevarriatravel.com 
1-866-580-5574 
 
http://blog.echevarriatravel.com 
Reservations at echevarriatravel.com 
Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel CST-1018299-10 
 
 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gail" <deerskin at oct.net> 
To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:52 PM 
Subject: [nagdu] A disaster of an SD program here in Kansas 
 
 
> Hello! 
> 
> Just got a call from my new IL caseworker, who wants to come tomorrow to 
> do 
> the usual yearly onceover. When I asked if she had found any O&M 
> instructor 
> for me (I had called there a couple weeks ago, asking if they could help, 
> and thought this was a response), she goes, 'oh, I know a wonderful 
> program 
> where you can get a guide dog in just a week or so!' My jaw 
> dropped....there 
> is only one reputable program in Kansas, and I knew it wasnt in Concordia.

> After I got off the phone, I looked up CARES http://www.caresks.com/index 
> htm and I was right. OMG, I wish I wasnt.... 
> 
> 
> I've known about this disaster since the time the SD laws were changed 
> here 
> in KS. The owner of this program raised a stink to get a new definition 
> put 
> in-"Professional Therapy Dog", and despite what you see on their site, 
> these 
> people *do not* know how to train either dogs or people. For years I've 
> had 
> their 'graduates' besiege me when I was out with my own service dogs, 
> pleading for help. You see, CARES 'Professional Therapy Dog" is no more 
> than 
> a pound pup, with no temperament testing, no task training, and absolute 
> minimum of obedience basics, that they hand out to kids with problems like

> autism. The training the handler gets is only for the Public Access Test, 
> and only a week or so at that, max. By law, a TD is supposed to be handled

> by an adult trainer, for the benefit of others. If it is working for one 
> person, it is no longer a TD, but some kind of halfbaked SD at best. One 
> of 
> the Board of Directors is a person who was thrown out and banned for life 
> by 
> the American Kennel Club, for abuse of her dogs. The owner and head of 
> CARES 
> is a person I spoke to several times at the time of the hearings, who was 
> trying to pump me for info on how to train dogs! Several members of my own

> SD group got dogs from there, and all returned the dogs, and trained their

> own, because the dogs were problems from the start, with no task training 
> whatsoever. 
> 
> 
> I was shocked when my caseworker told me so cheeirly, "oh, we can get you 
> a 
> guide dog from Concordia! I have a blind gentleman who is in a wheelchair,

> who has a dog from there. And you dont need to bother with a cane, to get 
> a 
> dog from there." Yeah, uh huh. I look at the site....no where have I found

> that they even list training guides...but they sure train for a lot of 
> other 
> junk, supposedly even bomb and narc dogs. 
> 
> 
> Guess I'm going to be doing a lot of reeducating of this caseworker 
> tomorrow 
> ....d***, I had hoped that place had gone belly up years go, and here it 
> still is. 
> 
> I'm hotter about this than the weather outside, I can tell you! 
> 
> Gail 
> 
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> 
 
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