Longterm goal?

Long-term goal: To get my son independent enough that he can live a reasonable life.

Finally after numerous applications, rejections, the “system” paperwork :sigh:  How on earth is a young person, without any issues, work out the system?  I battle with it on a regular basis, and it is akin to banging your head on a brick wall!!  Sorry, lost track, …….finally, he was accepted for a part payment from Centerlink (Social Security)  At least he can financially have some independence. He was rejected for a Disability Support Pension, but due to his medical issues they accept that he can qualify for a program to assist him into the workforce.  This news is great!!  He would dearly love to have a job, part time or casual.  Something to get him earning some money and out and about meeting people.  The program is Disability Employment Network (DEN) where they help him to find a job to suit his needs and abilities. !

Medically,  he is unable to work full time, at this stage anyway.  You really never know, but I was so thank full that he now has a caseworker looking out for him.  Hopefully they can find him a job where the managers understand him, and he gets the opportunity to show that he is useful to society, not to mention what it will do to his self-esteem!!  It is a real shame that you have to be on a payment to use these services. A medical assessment should be the qualification, but what would I know!

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Made the move

After a couple of stressful months, I found a reasonably cheap unit to rent, close to town. Not real cheap, but compared to others in this town, it was cheap. Rickety furniture, very old floor coverings, but has a washing machine, fridge and beds. As we have nothing we are grateful to at least to have somewhere to come home to.

For everyone’s sake my son needed to be away from the others, and I certainly needed some space to try and work out where and how I achieve my goal here.  It was a tough decision, but I am between a rock and a hard place.  Being a mother, I could not just walk away from my son in a time of need.  I know he needs me more than a “normal” 17 year old does, even though he probably won’t admit it!  My husband is having a reality check, I do love him, but we had been divided in our ways of handling things.  Hopefully later down the track we can have a chance to get on with our lives.  But in the meantime, he reminded me often enough, he needs a life.  I have never, ever stopped him from doing anything in life.  If he needs to move on and forget about me, that is ok by me.  I just can’t walk away from what I deem, nobody else, but I deem my son is my responsibility.  I have a plan, but it could take some time implementing, due to the nature of my son’s issues.  One step forward and two steps back.  I now just take a deep breath, and keep working on it, looking for another way to approach things.

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