Rude Professionals

This will be a compilation of a few incidents over the past few days that really annoyed me.

While driving to the SSI office to report income I got paged by the school where my youngest son Matthew attends. I am probably one of the few souls left in this world that does not own a cellphone - I saw on Regis and Kelly one time where Regis mentioned not having one or knowing how to operate one - so at least I am not totally alone in my cluelessness regarding cellphones.

I turned around and headed to the school - this was 9:30 am, school starts at 8:10 am. The office personnel told me the aide for my son was there saying his face was red, he had a fever, blah blah. My son looked pale when he was brought to the office and did not feel like he had a fever. They use the excuse that they cannot take his temperature. I have mentioned over the years that the forehead thermomenter is the one I have and it works fine, he has no problems with it.

In fact, a few years ago I brought it to the other school he attended, where his brother still goes, and showed it to the nurse and principal. The Principal told them to get one of these kinds, but they never followed through. Sure would be more sanitary than the ear kind for use with students.

So I called SSI to find out what the cut off date is for the month to report income and was asked if this was Social Security or SSI. I said SSI so that means they have different dates, makes sense since one check comes on the first and one on the third of each month.

I kept Matthew home Friday and brought him to SSI with me. We got there as it opened and the line was outside and then we got our bags checked and waited in another line to explain to counter person why we were there and than take a seat. Wait, wait, wait - the name of the game at the SSI office.

I come here almost every month, sometimes every two and this time they had not sent me the letter since October and I had to report income from November of 2005. The security guard has seen me there for a long time coming and even with my kids a few times. This time there was this guy in line behind me entering the building who was wearing a short black mini dress and high heels. He had on a football type jacket that covered nothing.

Instead of removing the guy/girl from the facility the Security guard was more interested in what Matthew was doing. He was skipping around the waiting room with a magazine brought from home, his stim to keep him occupied. Security guard asked me to keep my son under control since he is hyper. I said he is not hyper, he is autistic and the guy asked if I was applying for Social Security for him. I said no he already has it and I am reporting income for his brother.

A few minutes later the security guard comes over with a paper and asks me to write down name and SSI# of my other son. He took that to the counter and then our name was called. I don't like going places where there is a security guard sine they have weapons and one shake from my son could swipe their body and who knows the outcome. I was glad to get out of there so quickly, and guess I should bring my son with me more often for fast service!

Another issue is with my insurance agent who came over for my Life Insurance policy I ordered. It was hard to communicate with him since English is not his first language and based on zip code you are assigned your agent. Would be nice if we could pick our own, but no options nowadays.

I turn 46 in two weeks and this guy did not believe me when I said I dont have high blood pressure or high cholesterol and nothing wrong with me. He knew about the asthma and eczema and asked several times again and left before the lab person came for the blood and urine tests. He came back to the house to ask me one last time if I was sure I had nothing wrong with me.

He called later to find out the lab person's phone number and wanted to know when I last went to the Doctor. He said I will need more information and after he spoke to the lab person said did not need more. My blood pressure was normal. I hope my blood and urine tests come back okay since he kind of scared me thinking I should have something when I don't!

The last issue that bothered me was regarding the therapies my kids get through the Regional Center. This is part of the Developmental Disabilities system in the State of California. The kids worker sent me a letter since she lost my phone number - I just had it changed a month or two ago due to ex husband calling 12 times in one day - he has paranoid schizophrenia and lives on the streets in San Francisco.

Her letter indicated that someone from the social skills office called to ask why my son Nicholas had not been atending sessions. This really ticked me off since not one person called me to inqure , so instead they call and make a complaint against me with the State worker!

To me it is a complaint because it comes back to me when I request services for my kids and they say well you did not go regularly as they called on such and such date. This is actually the second call in the past year. The first one was from some girl who was leaving the company and make the call. I made a complaint with the therapy place saying I did not appreciate this at all and wanted to make sure the lines of communication were open between me and them.

I went to the emergency room in late Feb for my eczema and had my face swollen for one week, and I was not about to drive in the hot sun 45 minutes each way to the therapy. I cancelled and then we had a power outage that day and stayed at a super 8 motel so I could have ventilation and the kids would have tv and microwave for eating.

Then Mathew as out sick for one week with running nose and then I had bronchitis and Mat was sick with coughing, being sent home twice from school. I called early in the morning the day of the appt since Matt also has feeding therapy on the same day and the appts coincide so we can go there. The feeding therapist did a home visit one week on the same day as the appt so I called to say that Nick would not be there.

I called and spoke to the Program Specialist and person at the front desk and she had notes in compuet for each week I called and gave information to the two therapists. The Program Sopecialist said she did not call and I got a call back from State worker giving me name and date the person called. I left a message for the Program Specialist with this data and have not heard back yet.

I am tempted to not continue with the social skills because I do not want to associate with people or companies that treat families this way. The social skills is approved through the end of the year, but I feel like why bother? Someone dropped the ball and should be penalized for their lack of comunication with family and should lose the case for their actions.

Even the State worker made a comment about lack of communication and did I want to continue working with that agency. This is something I am going to consider and see how it goes the next few sessions. I believe by summer I will cancel services and let them know why.

Nothing bothers me more than a so called professional that goes behind your back to make inquiries instead of going to the source and calling me. The nerve of some people.