Our youngest son is 21, and if you have read some of my previous entries, you will know that he became schizophrenic around the time of his 18th birthday. His life skills and plans were shattered. He is brilliant and usually pleasant, unless he goes off his medications. (He chose the pseudonym "Idiot Like a Savant" for my blog.)
He was recently given official disability status by the Department of Social Security. We first applied about three years ago and they lost his paper work, but didn't know he was in the group that had their applications mysteriously disappear, until we called to ask why we had never heard back from them. We went through the application process again. After a while, we got a letter from them saying that none of the doctors or hospitals had sent them the records they had requested. We were asked to see if we could gather the records for them, but just a few days later we received a rejection letter before we had even had a chance to begin gathering his records.
We gave up until recently. The last time he was in the hospital, I drove straight to their office and set things in motion again. This time he was approved. The Social Security administration will pay the applicant all of the money they would have received, had they been approved on their first application, plus a monthly stipend to live on, his medical care, etc..
He can not manage his own money, so his Dad will be his representative.
The real reason I started this entry is that Savant moved into his dorm Friday. He has been so bored, and seems delighted to have this chance to try school again. Though he has only completed two semesters, he earned many credit hours in high school and by taking CLEP tests, so he is a Junior. One of the perks of being an upper classman is that he has an on-campus apartment instead of a cramped dorm room. We don't know if he will have a roommate. The housing office has a letter from a past psychiatrist, the last time he went to school, requesting that he have a private room to reduce the possibility of an adverse reaction to the stress it would cause him.
Remembering to take his medicine has been much harder than you would think, but he has been doing much better about it lately. I also think that the dramatic rise in the amount of time Savant has been able to spend with his father, during his Dad's vacation, has been very beneficial to him. My husband works 7 days a week during the Habitat For Humanity build season and we all really miss him. They don't do any builds during the winter, so we have all been happier to have him home with us. There is still lots of office work to prepare for the building season of 2006, but we get to have him home on weekends.
Since he is the "Big Cheese" in the construction department, he is trying to hire more competent helpers and to change things so that he will have at least one day a week off, hopefully two, and a chance to squeeze in a few games of golf every now and then. He deserves it; I've never met a harder worker.
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