[nabs-l] Help from anyone thaqt can assist me

[Ashley Bramlett]

Doug,
I'm confused because you haven't told us your plan.  You need a plan so you 
can discuss your vocational goal with your counselor.  Further I'm confused
why you'd request your VR counselor's assistance
in getting counseling for your emotional issues.
If you're young you're still a dependent on your parent's income and their 
insurance should cover counseling.
If not you probably have Medicade and this also covers counseling services. 
Its not your VR counselor's job to get this psychological service although 
it would be helpful if she gave you some resources for mental health 
services.
I do hope you get those services though.

What do you want to go to school for? What
have they trained you on?
Its reasonable for a VR counselor to do a program review if you are not 
doing the agreed upon plan;
you can change your mind of course, everyone does change career goals, but 
you need to let VR know.  This VR goal will be in your individualized plan 
for employment, IPE.


Unless I'm missing something, I really don't see why its so bad you tell VR 
you're going to school.  Tell them what you're going for.  You say she'll 
want to cover the
schooling.  If so, can't you just say you have financial resources to cover 
schooling?  I don't think you are under any obligation to accept financial 
help from VR, but you should tell them you're attending school.

Do you have any college course work?
Its a bad time to look for work now but I hope you made the decission to 
attend school on several factors, not just that you are fed up looking for 
work; many people are frustrated with the job hunt now.

My counselor was glad she didn't have to cover my schooling.
In fact in my state VA, VR will not cover private or religious schools, nor 
will they cover you if your parent's income is above a certain amount.

As long as you have a clear plan, your counselor is supposed to follow it 
and support your VR goal.  Its not her job to pick it for you.  If she does 
not follow your plan, take it to her supervisor.

HTH,
Ashley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Oliver" <oliver.doug1 at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 9:19 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Help from anyone thaqt can assist me


> Ok all. I have a slight issue here.
> I have a counseler that is not wanting to work with me with my local blind 
> agency.
> I'm in the Dallas Texas area.
> What's going on is I called her the other day to ask for her assistance 
> with counseling as I've got some emotional issues that I'm needing help 
> with and can't do it on my own.
> She says she needs to do a program review as I'm not doing anything that 
> they've trained me on,  and I have made a change in plan as I want to go 
> back to school instead of just going back to work as finding work right 
> now just isn't cutting it.
> I don't want to put on my iep that I'm going to school as she'll want to 
> cover the schooling, and I don't want to have to take 12 hours of classes. 
> I for me, since I've not been in school since I graduated high school, I 
> want to start out with 1 class at a time and go from there.
> What do I do?  as I have a meeting with her this Thursday.
> I want to tell her exactly what I want, but not sure how to approach it 
> without coming across as harsh, or as a jerk.
> Please let me know what to do before I have to go meet with her Thursday.
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