Tag Archives: autism

Please Sign Petition For Sensitivity Training At Whole Foods

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Michael GoldmanUnfortunately, we are only going to see more of this as a growing and aging autism population works to find acceptance in a culture that is much indifferent, apathetic and ignorant of autism. Please join me and Pathways In Autism in signing this petition for change to help motivate Whole Foods stores to really be more “inclusive” of ALL of their customers.

In Advocacy,

Mike

Here is the email I received today from Change.org…

Whole Foods states that its “inclusive” stores treat customers with “courtesy and respect,” but actions by their employees and contractors show that training is needed before they begin to include persons with disabilities.

I recently went shopping with my brother Michael, a 26-year-old with autism, at a Milwaukee Whole Foods store. After walking away from my side my brother took some food from the hot bar. He is sometimes confused by the order of payment and shopping etiquette, plus he may have been confused by the samples. My brother doesn’t speak — it’s part of his autism — so couldn’t explain himself when he was confronted by two Whole Foods security guards.

The two Whole Foods security guards then escorted my brother to the exit of the store. When I found out what happened I explained my brother’s situation and offered to pay for the food. The Whole Foods security personnel responded that my brother would never be allowed back unless he was on a leash like a dog. They told me that they had never spoken to my parents about my brother – so this was their first response. When my mother complained to the assistant manager about how my brother had been treated, the assistant store manager apologized for the specific use of the word “leash” – but he clearly was not pleased with having my brother in his store.

After I collected hundreds of signatures on a Change.org petition, and brought more attention through Twitter, the store manager called my mother. The store manager said that one of the security guards had been removed from the store. He defended the actions of the other guard. With urging, he agreed to provide some sort of sensitivity training in that store, but refused to provide specifics and refused to work with the local autism society.

After more than 500 people signed on to this petition, the national office of Whole Foods got involved. The store contacted our local autism society to set up a training, but has not held such a training with our local autism society or with any other third party. We are hopeful that they will live up to their promise and actually conduct it. In the meantime, they said that they had their own in-house trainer speak with the staff, but we do not have many specifics (details below).

I am thrilled by this pledge to provide quality training locally, but I want to ensure that it occurs, and I think that preventative training is needed in other stores so that everyone who works in Whole Foods is prepared to treat people with disabilities with courtesy and respect.

What happened to my brother is not an isolated incident.

In Dallas in 2011, a 28-year-old man with autism was arrested for trespassing while he was shopping in a Whole Foods store. Police were told to come because the man was “acting odd.” The man stated that he had autism and the information was simply disregarded. Whole Foods never formally apologized. We do not know how many other cases go unreported, either because they are less flagrant, or because families do not publicize their experiences.

Whole Foods website touts their extensive staff training and highlights their values including:

Our stores are “inclusive.” Everyone is welcome…

Customers are fellow human beings with feelings and emotions like our own; they are equals to be treated with courtesy and respect at all times.

I am asking the Whole Foods corporation to live up to their stated values by implementing formal, quality training for everyone who works in their stores on how to interact with customers who have disabilities.

We — the family, friends, and supporters of persons with disabilities — urge Whole Foods to become a store that shares our commitment to human dignity.

Expect Spin With Autism Mandates

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This is to be expected as mandates across the states now start to take effect. “Creative” maneuvering by the insurance companies is going to delay, defer, or deny coverage for ABA as much as possible due to the effect on their bottom line. ABA costs money. A lot of money. Most families in states who have recently passes autism mandates already know this and are going broke providing ABA and other interventions to their children with autism.

This article is not surprising though. Insurance points at the schools and says, “This is a governmental, educational problem.” The schools point at insurance providers and say, “This a medical problem and the insurance companies are responsible.” Unfortunately, parents are left in the lurch.

Gamesmanship will be played full swing as the statistics of autism increase, mandates are put to the continued observance and execution test and providers try to manipulate their insured with lunatic requirements that realistically can’t be met – such as is the case in Michigan.

Having lived in Michigan, I can attest to the shortage of providers and the long waiting lists for services. I can’t imagine how families who qualify for the mandate will jump through the hoops that insurance providers are creating. It is sad as well as disconcerting, and I hope that some semblance of enforcement of plausible terms can be created.

Please click here to read the entire story...

“A state law requiring insurance companies and health plans to pay for treatments for children with autism goes into effect today, but autism advocates and parents say that while the new measure is a significant step, many families may get little, if any, help from the new statute anytime soon.

Michigan has far too few medical professionals who offer the specialized therapy autistic children require, they say, and some insurers appear to be setting conditions that could make autistic children and their families wait many months for help — if they get it at all.

In the meantime, families with autistic children either go without the treatment that can help their sons and daughters learn to function, or teeter on the brink of financial ruin…”

In Advocacy,

Mike

Watch Your Little Eloper!

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Just today, I was faked out by out little “eloper.” Eloping is when a person (or child) just “wanders off” or attempts to escape. It is a fairly regular activity with children with autism. We have had our fair share of calling local police or the military police (on a military base) to assist us with finding out child!

This article discusses the pervasiveness of this issue with autistic children and his a fair warning to all parents, and not just those with autistic children.

The quote that struck me strongly was this, “There’s reason to believe that this is a leading cause of death in children with autism and possibly the leading cause of death…”

Wow. Please click here to take a look at the entire article…

Response to The Tricare Response in Losing Retiree Lawsuit

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This is the kind of stuff that really riles me up in a big way. Any parents who has ever advocated for their autistic child know that sickening, angering and gut wrenching feeling when your child’s rights to proper care or education are denied. It is even worse when the matter goes to court. My wife and I have been there multiple times in due process and state complaints, and have watched the bureaucracy and politics that occur with governmental organizations that do not want to comply with the law.

Such is the case, as it appears with the recent ruling against Tricare that was awarded to a family that challenged Tricare to their policy of not providing applied behavior analysis, or ABA for their child as military retirees who utilize Tricare for their health care provider. It took several years, but earlier this year the judge in the matter ruled that Tricare needed to cover ABA as a medical benefit, regardless of programs like ECHO and the Demo that are provided to active duty military. Well, as this article attached below states, the family won, but what did they really win?

Because Tricare legally now has to cover ABA for the thousands of retirees and their autistic dependents, they have also decided that they will start changing the rules as to who can and cannot now receive ABA for active duty dependents as well. It appears that Tricare has started to deny ABA benefits to those with Down Syndrome, when that was a regular benefit before the lawsuit. I know it will not end their with the animal known as Tricare.

The main PROBLEM in all of this is that the current platform in this election season by the incumbent president is that “voting for the Republicans will hurt those with Autism or Down Syndrome.” Well, sorry Mr. President, and sorry President Clinton (who said these very words during the Democratic National Convention) but YOUR administration is already doing a good job of disrupting and damaging the lives of military dependents who rely on those services.

There is going to be much more on this issue to come.

Please click on the link here to read the rest of this story. Here is an excerpt from it….

“…And so I was shocked when, only one month after he started treatment, I received a letter from Tricare refusing to pay. I appealed, appealed and appealed. I was denied, denied and denied. Tricare, we were told, covers no therapy – medically necessary or otherwise – for retirees.

Tricare insisted that the most – and almost always only – effective autism treatment was not a covered benefit. In one phone conversation, a Tricare representative hissed: “If you don’t like the way the legislation is written, then contact your Congressman.”

Which I did.

I appealed to my congressman who took up my cause. He, too, was rebuffed. I appealed to the number two in charge of Tricare, Gen. Elder Granger, and was rejected again.

Finally I appealed to the Secretary of Defense. Like everyone else in the Tricare bureaucracy, a curt rejection, with little or no explanation, was his response. I felt defeated.

And that’s when we headed to court.”