Discharge from Therapy?

[bugsntazz]

Hello,
My son will soon be four. He had Bicept legnthening in Nov and has been in therapy 2 a week since birth. His OT now wants to discharge him from therapy stating that he is age appropriate on everything. I am very grateful for all of his recovery, but am concerned about discharging him. It is not an insurance issue as they are still paying. Anyone else been discharge ? and at what age? I have emailed TCH to see what they say?

[TNT1999]

I would change therapist ASAP! This could be big problems for you in dealing with insurance in the future. From what I understand therapy is going to be needed to some extent indefinitely. If your son's injury is severe enough to need surgery, then I would think that he still needs therapy. What do you think? Do you think that he needs therapy still? I know that sometimes the early intervention or school therapy programs might want to discharge a child b/c they're okay developmentally by compensating, etc., but hospital therapy should be medically based, not educationally based. How long have you been working with this particular OT? The thing is if you think your son should still have therapy and this OT writes up reports saying that he doesn't need therapy anymore, than that might make it very difficult in getting benefits from your insurance co. in the future.

Another thing that bothers me is that going from therapy 2x/wk to NOTHING seems like a major risk to me. I think it makes much more sense to gradually decrease therapy when it seems to be getting near time to stop therapy for whatever reason.

Also, if your son had surgery in Nov, then I would imagine that he's still showing continued improvement from that surgery. As long as there is progress being made, however slow it might be, I think there should be ongoing therapy.

Well, see what TCH says and please BE CAREFUL of this OT and try to find another ASAP. I hope it all works out for you. -Tina

[marymom]

we have been discharged for over a year and its a relief to be incharge and responsible for my sons therapy outside of a formal realm, we still have contact informally however and ofcourse I can take him in if I ever have any questions/concerns, which at first I did quite often because after being dependant on the therapist for Maxs therapy/recovery (or at least to guide us in it)it was scary, but I learned we could do as much without the side effects that formal therapy has, Max never had surgery tho~ and Im sure it would be even more difficult for me to break ties with formal therapy if he had,
release from formal therapy BY NO MEANS means therapy ends, it just releases you from formal care.

[francine]

here's a French viewpoint - from Dr. Gilbert in Paris

http://www.obstetricalpalsy.net/Home%20page.htm

Maia will be four soon also - but she just recently had a capsulodesis surgery so she does get the one year of rehab but we will be facing the same problem of discharge unless she has more surgery down the road and it becomes a 'new diagnosis' again.

I think it's really important to get our kids really active with specific things that will 'work' their arms- like swimming, gymnastics, karate, etc,etc. BUT I personally believe that professional therapy maybe should be less often but it still should exist (at least in the early years) to keep on assessing problems that may arise and teach you what to do with these new areas...especially if your child has had surgery meaning that he had what is classified as a permanent and severe injury.

What about life tasks? Is he doing everything he needs to do like putting on his own coat and zipping it? Buttoning shirts?

"Side effects" from formal therapy? I think the only time you'll have side effects from formal therapy is if you have a really horrible therapist - and why would you want to go to a horrible therapist anyway? Maia has four therapists now that she really loves and her therapy has been great (as compared to last year) - no trauma here - no negative side effects. If anything this year's group has really pushed her into going forward - she has a lot more confidence now in everything she does and I am completely grateful for the group we have this year.

I do also agree with Tina - that this therapist could really mess up your insurance by discharging him like that. Make sure you get copies of the therapy records so you can see where else she is inserting her opinion into his formal record. That's how you get side effects that's for sure.

good luck,
francine