For the NYC child welfare professionals

I’m learning that most people in child welfare/foster care are unaware of the resources available to individuals and parents with mental retardation (yes, I’m using the correct, medical term to date). It seems that if a mom has a diagnosis of Mild Mental Retardation it’s viewed as ‘sort of pregnant’. But if someone has Mild Mental Retardation they’ve got a full-on developmental disability and are eligible for tons of services through OMRDD. These services usually trump those for folks with mental illness (it’s a funding and stigma thing) so if they have both, I recommend the OMRDD route here in New York.

By services I mean a Medicaid case worker (MSC), job training/day program, counseling (Article 16), psychiatric services (Article 28), housing (IRA or ICF), advocacy and tons of parenting classes and support (on-going for life, not the 8-week crap). The best OMRDD provider out there for NYC parents with mental retardation is Sinergia . Fortunately I don’t work for or with them so I can say that. Check out this page and in particular the photo. Perhaps it’s the first time you’ve seen a picture of a parent with mental retardation and their child (even if they are models)?

Feel free to ask me questions. It looks as though moms with mental retardation is becoming my niche.

Note: If you have a family member with a developmental disability (Mental Retardation, autism, etc) and they aren’t on Medicaid (because you’ve been told they have too much money), ~~clear out there bank account immediately and~~ (I’ve been corrected, it’s not even necessary) get them signed-up for services. ~~It’s legal and~~ most agencies have family seminars where they teach you how to do it properly. About once a year a friend-of-a-friend comes to me for help with their brother or sister who the family affectionately describes as ”learning disabled” but at age 35 they still require supervision and have never plugged into the resources they qualified for and need.