HomeMy WebLinkAboutE-mail from Lynae Condit 2.25.09 - CCS Medical Therapy Unit Budget Cuts Page i of 2
Moghannam, Kathleen
From: Lynae Condit[lynaecondit@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2;22 PM eQANO OF
To: Moghannam, Kathleen; Connelly, Bill RVISOPS
Subject: URGENT! Regarding CCS Medical Therapy Unit Budget Cats `��� ���
25, 2009, 2:16 PM CALIPpRN!
A
February 25, 2009
Dear Member of the Butte County Board of Supervisors,
I am a concerned parent writing in regard to the decisions you will be making this Tuesday
affecting the CCS Mecical Therapy Unit at Loma Vista school in Chico , CA .
My son, James, is a 2 %2 year old with Spina Bifida, and receives both physical and occupational
therapy at the CCS MTU twice weekly. It is my understanding that, due to budget cuts,there has
been a discussion and/or action surrounding cutting certain jobs and/or moving personnel out
of the CCS MTU. I am deeply concerned about this.
Carri Erickson, the therapy aide at CCS MTU has reportedly been laid off already. If her
position is permanently cut, this is outrageous. Carri maintains a clean and healthy environment
for therapy sessions at the CCS MTU and assists with equipment for children like my son when
it is a two-person job to get the children in and out of equipment (which is often). Carri provides
motivation for children like my son to walk and reach their therapy goals, while the therapists
work with the child and the equipment, observing their abilities and assessing them in their
current goals.
Debbie, the MRT has reportedly been moved to the regional office, leaving the CCS MTU at
Loma Vista without anyone to perform such duties as answering phones, typing reports, filing,
requesting medical records and prescriptions for equipment from doctors, and so on.
Will the professional occupational and physical therapists be expected to perform these
secretarial tasks themselves from now on? This is completely unreasonable, and I am concerned
about the quantity and quality of therapy for my son. If therapists are going to have to spend
their time answering phones and doing paperwork, this directly affects my son. Will they be
forced to cut their service hours (working directly with children) in order to perform secretarial
tasks?
I am worried that the therapy room will become an unhealthy environment for my son. If the
therapy assistant job is cut, who will clean the therapy room, the equipment, and the toys and
manipulatives that are shared by hundreds of children each week? Who will assist the therapists
with moving children in and out of equipment safely? Will another therapist who needs
assistance pull my son's therapist away from her quality time with my son in order to receive the
assistance he or she needs with the child he/she is working with?
This isa s e mandated�program that ' going to be negatively affected on a very large scale if
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2/25/2009
Page 2 of 2
you cut the therapy aid position and move the MRT out of the CCS MTU at Loma Vista.
I am outraged, and I hope that you will consider carefully how your decision regarding this will
negatively affect so many children with disabilities of all kinds in Butte County who receive PT
and OT at the CCS Medical Therapy Unit at Loma Vista.
Please do not allow my son, or any of these medically fragile children, to suffer in the chaos of
this budget crisis.
Thank you,
Lynae Condit
530-876-8963
6239 Fern Lane
Paradise , CA. 95969
2/25/2009