Re: OT- Any Military Families here? (ARMY)?? cross post.

[Guest guest]

Hi , I'm Air Force so close, but not quite. I'm assuming lots

of things are the same though.

I think the cooperation of the military is based on your ped. If you

have an unfriendly ped (as I do), then there's not much help. But I

have friends in the Navy who have a ped who is open to

alternative/natural med and actually went to bat with Tricare for them

and they have most stuff (but not all) paid for.

The AF has a special needs program (can't remember the name - they

change it so often) that is supposed to be useful, but I have never

received ANY assistance from them. They just make sure that when we

move, we are near a facility that is useful for our medical condition.

However, it's traditional medicine facility and you don't get to pick,

so not really that helpful.

Good luck with his reenlistement. Hopefully you will find a ped that

is sympathetic to your cause.

Wyndie

>

> Hi,

> Sorry to be OT, but my husband is fixing to re-enlist in the ARMY.

> We were in before our twins & now one is autistic. We were only sent

to

> Ft. Hood, TX. Wont know where we will be going now. So, I really

would

> love to here ANYONES comments or advice on how the military (ARMY)

> helps,does not help, understands, ETC.ETC. with our special needs

kids.

> DAN! Chelation, supplements, enzymes, SCHOOLS, therapies, or ANYTHING

> else you can share with me.

> Any & All comments or advice will be greatly appreciated...

> I am really nerveous!

> Thanks so much,

> Michele T (NC)

>

[Guest guest]

My (ex) husband is career military. One thing that has helped me is taking

advantage of military discounts at some stores. For example, GNC has their

" gold card " which gives anyone a discount for part of the month. But if you

have a gold card and are military and if there is a GNC on the base where

you are stationed, you can get that discount all the time at that store, not

just a few days per month. Lots of places have military discounts that are

not advertised. It doesn't hurt to ask and it can save you tons of money

over the long run.

The army also has good dental insurance and good medical coverage. Yes, it

is conventional medicine. But some people do get free things like vitamin

supplements if a doctor will write them a prescription for it. No, you

don't have as much control over what it is as you would if you paid out of

pocket. For example, I know someone who gets calcium for free via the

military pharmacy (for pre-osteoporosis condition, has nothing to do with

autism) but it is the most common form of calcium sold, which isn't very

absorbable. Yet, if you are on a budget, the free-but-not-well-absorbed

calcium may have a meaningful role to play in your treatment plan for the

kid.

Also, if you go to a civilian doctor, you can take prescriptions they write

and get them filled on base for free if it is something the base pharmacy

carries. (You can get a booklet from the pharmacy that lists everything

they carry and take it with you to see a civilian doctor to make sure that

he writes it in a way that they can fill it.) Which means that even if the

particular medical facility you are stationed near doesn't have a helpful

doctor stationed there, that doesn't mean your medical benefits are useless.

The special family member program that someone else referred to does have

some benefits but you have to know what to ask for. It needs to be

reasonable accommodation, in line with the diagnosis of the family member.

For example: When I was deathly ill, it allowed my husband to delay getting

re-assigned for a year or so, which helped to save my life. It may also

help you to get into on-base housing of your choice within certain

parameters. It doesn't give you carte blanche but I did request a specific

housing area once based on my infant son's asthma and got it -- some of the

nicest housing in the area that we were supposed to be low priority for

because he was low ranking at the time. I have no idea if autism is a

condition that the military will recognize as being related to chemical

sensitivities and the like. But if you do your homework, " special family

member " and similar programs can have some very meaningful benefits.

You can also ask for a relocation packet with information about the area you

are moving to before you go, if you know far enough in advance.

The military has lots of good benefits, many of them poorly understood (or

even completely unknown) by quite a lot of the military members and their

dependents. Much of the compensation for military service is actually in the

benefits. You just have to do your research.

--

Michele -- almost free of Limbo and searching for a new " signature " . :-)

talithamichele@...

Portal to my Websites:

www.atraceofme.com

" Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. "

-- Albert Einstein

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I have a friend who was a special education teacher on

Army bases abroad, but there was no one who had a

specific training in autism---just special education.

Theresa

--- Abid Khan <a_bit_solutions@...> wrote:

> I'm an Army civilian and I don't know of any

> specific help provided for autistics. If you find

> any, plz let me know

>

> mltallent <mltallent@...> wrote: Hi,

> Sorry to be OT, but my husband is fixing to

> re-enlist in the ARMY.

> We were in before our twins & now one is autistic.

> We were only sent to

> Ft. Hood, TX. Wont know where we will be going now.

> So, I really would

> love to here ANYONES comments or advice on how the

> military (ARMY)

> helps,does not help, understands, ETC.ETC. with our

> special needs kids.

> DAN! Chelation, supplements, enzymes, SCHOOLS,

> therapies, or ANYTHING

> else you can share with me.

> Any & All comments or advice will be greatly

> appreciated...

> I am really nerveous!

> Thanks so much,

> Michele T (NC)

>

>

>

>

>

>

> ---------------------------------

> Do you ?

> Everyone is raving about the all-new .

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>

__________________________________________________