Here in Michigan there is something called Community support subsidy. I don’t know if it’s available in other states but it couldn’t hurt to check. Here you contact the community mental health provider it’s not part of the Department of Human services. If your child has multiple impairments, which can be a combination of mental and physical impairments then they can qualify for respite. Respite money is about 120 dollars a month that they will pay to a sitter to give the parents a break.
If you can get the school to say that your child is SXI or has multiple impairments you can also get the monthly community support subsidy that is currently $222.11 a month in Michigan. It’s almost impossible to get approved for this before they are school age. One of my friends is just getting the school to finally give the designation to her 8 year old who as FAS, Autism and Klinefelters. Another friend of mine with 4 year old twins just got approved for the respite, but not the subsidy yet, maybe in a couple years when they are school age. They are enrolled full time in a program for severely delayed children, but it’s difficult to get a diagnosis of Autistic on a young child and without labels, you don’t get services.
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Again, I think there is a real lack of communication with people adopting internationally so they are not aware of community services available to them. For example, I’m on the board of our Foster adoptive Family Resource Center which is a grassroots organization started by foster and adoptive parents to help other foster and adoptive parents. We will serve any adoptive families, which means; Christmas gifts, free bowling parties, free movies, free school supplies and backpacks, free or discounted water park tickets and Free respite Saturdays. Our agency serves the adjacent counties as well since they do not have a similar organization; however there are similar organizations in Michigan.
Since you’ve adopted children you probably don’t think of yourselves as being foster parents, but foster agencies like Department of Human Services typically have monthly training sessions or support groups. If they don’t have a support group, chances are they have a list of area support groups. The behaviors I’ve read about with many internationally adopted children are the same behaviors that foster parents deal with everyday. The support groups are usually free, they give you a chance to unload on people who deal with the same thing and may be able to give you ideas for dealing with a particular behavior. Also, you may meet foster parents that do respite care. We have an unwritten pack here in our county that we will provide 24 hours of respite care for your child for what ever your daily foster care rate is. Usually with difficult children that is between $25 and $35 a day. I realize that with internationally adopted children there is no subsidy; however foster parents would still probably provide you with respite care for this amount. I provide respite care for difficult children and have been keeping the same children for weekends periodically for many years.
