United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Just a vent........

Late nights with a 3 month old have made me a night owl. In between infomercials at 2am there was a commercial for California's Early Start Program. I've now seen 3 commercials for the program, all aired between 1 AM and 3 AM.

Please tell me how many parents are going to see these commercials??? I've been off of work since late June and never once seen these commercials during the day. And believe me, I've seen alot of daytime TV in the past 4 months.

Granted -- commercial time is expensive, especially during Oprah. But wouldn't it make more sense to air one commercial in the afternoon or early evening than to air 3 or 4 commercials from 1 AM to 5 AM???

I guess CA doesn't want to help needy kids out quite as much as they say!!!

Yikes....Please don't think I'm crazy, but after posting here I was more irritated than ever!! So here is a copy of the email I sent to Governor Gray Davis of CA:


Dear Governor Davis,

I am writing to you today to bring to your attention the State's embarrassing lack of concern involved in getting kids into the State's Early Start Program.

As the mother of a 3-month-old boy I have spent many late nights flipping through the channels on TV and become aware of California's Early Start Program.

It is disturbing that Early Start ads are running between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM, in the midst of infomercials. Yet I have never seen these ads running in the afternoon during popular programming such as Oprah or even during the 4, 5 or 6 o'clock news.

Who exactly is the State of California targeting for this program?

I can't imagine that it would be the parent of a child affected with any type of physical or mental disability. Most of these parents must be exhausted at the end of the day with the extensive care they must give to their children. The last thing I imagine they would do is stay up through the middle of the night to buy the latest and greatest exercise video and, by chance, see the services offered by the State.

As the parent of a young child I am appalled that the DDS is not more vigilant in making sure the greatest impact is made with their advertising dollars. Commercial advertising is extremely expensive. Though wouldn't it make more sense to run one ad while people were awake? Better than 3 or 4 ads wasted while the majority of the population sleeps?

Unless of course it is cheaper to run 3 or 4 ads, than it is to give services to everyone that could really benefit from them.

My vote counted in this last election and I hope that my email counts as well. Most Californians that I know have no problem paying taxes for State services or improvements. Though programs hidden with lack of publicity or irresponsible media placement are a waste our dollars. And this is a point I make towards all State funded programs.

Please take steps to get these ads placed in reasonable timeslots. Parents need you to be their children’s Advocate. Especially when the Department of Developmental Services won't be.

Sincerely,

Bobbi Bowles

Taxpayer

If I am rembering my mass com class from college right, the TV stations are required to air a certain amount of public service ads. It is up to the individual station when they air them. Thats why many times you see a bunch of them in the middle of the night when they wouldn't be able to sell the air time anyway. I'll double check on this and post later. If you get a response saying the same thing from the gov. office let me know. If this is the case it might be more effective to e-mail the TV station.

You GO GIRL!!!

Please help me figure out what this program is about. Is it for a certain age or income group? What kinds of services do they provide? Is it ran through the Regional Center? What is the contact number?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bringing it to the top for the guest with questions.

The program is based on disability. Our kids are considered low impact when only the arm/hand is affected. I'm not sure how they qualify if there is further injury like Klumps etc. I believe the Regional Center is the starting point, but there are also some types of services offered through the California Children Services. I haven't applied through CCS yet.

To date my son has qualified for PT and OT, but since he is considered low impact these services are directed by our local school district. The school district tests your childs speech, hearing and general development. Since my son was 3 months old they verified that he reacted and did what babies 0 - 3 months normally do.

We do not qualify for PT or OT until we exhaust our insurance benefits, then they review our case every 3 to 6 months to determine what if any services are needed.

I walked in like a "Know it all of OBPI" and was very vocal about my reservations regarding the qualifications of the therapist at the school who had only seen 2 other BPI kids in a 10 year career.

Since we are already seeing an infant specialist they agreed to refer out (to our therapist) for continued benefits which will begin when our 30 PT visits are exhausted in late January.

The frustrating part is that we moved right after the recommendation was made so now I have to fight the same battle with our new school district.

If you have any questions regarding how we went through the process please email me at:
bobbitta@pacbell.net

Are you having problems getting ins. to pay for any of your surgeries? We cant get help with anything here we live in the high desert, by Victorville. We went to Texas and had the mod-quad in Oct. Where do you go for care? Jennifer Bobbi's mom

commercial society

not saying I like it, and dont get me going about the commercials that ARE on that children and parents DO see and buy into, the demise of our nation

but help was here for me when I went looking for it~and if I wanted surgery I could get my state(Florida) to help me with it if I stayed in state Im sure(it was offered)~
I dont know if I was just lucky or if maybe its like that in most states?
when my babies were that age I just slept with them so when they woke up I could just roll over and feed them, its amazingly simple and cuts down on the sids rates too~
altho there were some nights...
try and get some sleep during the day if you can...sleep is good, esp if you have to deal with therapists
blessings

Further info. on CCS. I life in San Fran area. We see Dr. Vincent Hentz at Standford Medical Center. Perhaps your insurance will help you see a doctor in state. As far as CCS. I have used them since Caleb started OT back when he was but 6 months old. I have been able to get very qualified OT/PT and the only qualification for it is that you must have a disability (not speech related) and you must be under 21 years and be a resident of California.

We have had two OTs at CCS. Both were excellent. My first OT had 10 years of experience and treated several BPI kids. She was excellent about researching and easy to work with when I brought up new options for us to try. She left to be home with her kids. My second OT is a TBPI. She has a special interest in BPI kids. She has been excellent! She is going to observe Caleb's surgery so she can see exactly how his muscles will be alligned to help her with OT. She has also been able to get us hooked up with a PT who can give us E-stim and we're working on getting Caleb a Duraflex splint(sp?). Anyway, sorry to ramble, but I can't say enough good things about them. You don't have to exhaust your insurance's OT/PT to be qualified. You just have to sign up.

For more information on them and other CA stuff you can check out my website...

http://www.calebsjourney.anderson-clan.org

Thanks for listening,

Kari