Quit

Well, Dad officially quit speech therapy yesterday. He had reached a point that many in therapy reach where they just don’t want to do it anymore. I was told this is quite common. And if you aren’t showing improvement, Medicare will stop paying for services. Dad’s speech still presents a hurdle (specifically with yes and no still) and speech therapy had wanted to start him on augmentative and alternative communication. This begins to teach an individual how to use other forms of communication (i.e. pictures and hand gestures, computers), anything other than oral speech. Like older people whose licenses are taken away, because they pose a danger to themselves and others on the road, asking someone to essentially give up something they have done practically their whole life is a lot to ask. Asking them to begin communicating in ways they never imagined is even more to ask. Many feel a choice, speech in this instance, is being taken away from them, that they have no say in anything, no pun intended. Dad did not want to learn augmentative and alternative communication at this time. You can’t make someone do something they do not want to do. So he quit. What can I say? That I was disappointed? Part of me was. I want to see Dad succeed. It’s one thing to raise your children, it’s quite another to take care of your parents, yet the sentiment involved in caring for both is the same or should be.
In the end he was told to take a month or so off and see how he feels. If he wants to begin speech therapy again he will have to go to his PCP for a new referral. I joked with Dad last night, remembering he was a teacher, “You just wanted to have the summer off didn’t you.” He laughed. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve and I'm not giving up yet. And we continue on…