scooter
12-08-2015, 13:58
I haven't been active here for a while. Last year my son was diagnosed with Autism. Being a good military guy, I enrolled him in EFMP and set about getting him the help he needed. Tricare paid for a variety of therapy.
It sucked. None of it helped my son. The disparate therapists were disjointed and did not work together or even in the same direction. It was like trying to teach someone to play football by having a throwing coach, strength coach, teamwork advisor, and a rule book, but no practice. It was going nowhere.
In desperation I found a place calls the Brown Center for Autism in Nashville, TN. For lack of a better analogy, they taught football. Everyone worked together on a common plan, with one person managing each child's overall plan.
It produced miracles. My son had no eye contact and wasn't talking when he started; Six months later he won't stop talking. I wondered at the time why there weren't more places like it. It was expensive, but nowhere produced results like this.
Yesterday I found out why. Brown announced they are closing due to lack of funding. It costs 50,000 per child to provide the services they give, and tuition only covers a fraction of that. The rest comes from donations, and several funding sources have dried up.
I donated the bulk of my life savings to keep them open until roughly April. I had saved 120,000 over six OIF and OEF rotations and the assorted JCETs. They don't know it was my personal donation, I told them I raised it. I am working on bringing in new funding so that wasn't much of a stretch...
I am not looking for a pat on the back or publicity. What I am asking is that anyone who can reach out to others and see if anyone can give, even a little, to keep the Center open. The work they do is the difference in Autistic children ending up like Sheldon cooper vs rain man. I've included the link to the gofundme page below for small scale donations, as well as the link to the Center's web page for those interested.
Again, I don't want them to know the money to stay open came from me. But, any additional funds or introductions are welcome.
De Opresso Liber
http://e.gofund.me/zvdvr796
http://www.thebrowncenter.org
It sucked. None of it helped my son. The disparate therapists were disjointed and did not work together or even in the same direction. It was like trying to teach someone to play football by having a throwing coach, strength coach, teamwork advisor, and a rule book, but no practice. It was going nowhere.
In desperation I found a place calls the Brown Center for Autism in Nashville, TN. For lack of a better analogy, they taught football. Everyone worked together on a common plan, with one person managing each child's overall plan.
It produced miracles. My son had no eye contact and wasn't talking when he started; Six months later he won't stop talking. I wondered at the time why there weren't more places like it. It was expensive, but nowhere produced results like this.
Yesterday I found out why. Brown announced they are closing due to lack of funding. It costs 50,000 per child to provide the services they give, and tuition only covers a fraction of that. The rest comes from donations, and several funding sources have dried up.
I donated the bulk of my life savings to keep them open until roughly April. I had saved 120,000 over six OIF and OEF rotations and the assorted JCETs. They don't know it was my personal donation, I told them I raised it. I am working on bringing in new funding so that wasn't much of a stretch...
I am not looking for a pat on the back or publicity. What I am asking is that anyone who can reach out to others and see if anyone can give, even a little, to keep the Center open. The work they do is the difference in Autistic children ending up like Sheldon cooper vs rain man. I've included the link to the gofundme page below for small scale donations, as well as the link to the Center's web page for those interested.
Again, I don't want them to know the money to stay open came from me. But, any additional funds or introductions are welcome.
De Opresso Liber
http://e.gofund.me/zvdvr796
http://www.thebrowncenter.org