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

Thu Jun 24 11:02:28 UTC 2010

Gail,

I am going to express a personal opinion here regarding the ILC's.  I used
to work for one, and it is my experience that their knowledge and
understanding of disability related issues is very broad, not specific.
With this in mind, they are not required to have any level of certification,
but just simply 51% of their staff and board need to be comprised of persons
with disabilities meaning that that they *have been there done that*
attitude leaving one to believe that they understand your situation.  My
employment with the ILC was for 11 years, and I saw a lot, but they always
came to the blind guy to get blind info.  Says a lot.  Honestly, your
connection to the NFB and NAGDU, through peer contact and communication will
probably move you to a higher level of independence than where you might be
heading now with the ILC.  

Again, this is just my opinion, and if you have other questions, feel free
to write me off list at stevencjohnson at centurytel.net

specifically, blindness.

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Gail
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 6:14 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nagdu] A disaster of an SD program here in Kansas

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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