You have it all worked out - or maybe you don't.
What's your plan as a parent of a special needs child for the day you can no longer take care of him/her? Do you have a plan in case of an emergency situation that takes you away from home, leaving your child in the care of someone else?
Maybe you tell yourself there's nothing to worry about; you're organized and you have your plans and papers stashed away in case of such an event. You went to the Container Store or Office Depot and got file folders, file tabs, cool baskets for the folders, and just the right amount of binders.
After all, you're someone who uses sock dividers. Your spices are labeled and arranged alphabetically in the rack you bought on Amazon. Your coupons are stacked according to expiration dates. Your calendar is on a white board and color-coded by family member.
Because you're organized in all parts of your life, you figure you're well-organized in just the right way when it comes to the transfer of care of your child (eventual adult) with special needs. But take a closer look: are you really?
Chances are, you have a couple dozen folders containing all-things-special-needs. But does the information IN those folders capture the true essence of who your child (teen...adult) actually is? Will what lies hidden in the hundreds of documents you have truly tell someone taking over for you (the master of a million details) who your child is and what s/he/they need in order to be living a content life without you?
You've probably made the move to paperless bank statements. You do online bill pay. Your medical records are online. You correspond with loved ones via text and email. So many ways our lives have gone paperless. Why not special needs planning?
If you are super organized, think of the ease with which you can update information about your child as s/he/they grows older. You won't have to pull out dozens of folders, search hundreds of papers, remove the outdated stuff, and add newly printed pages.
Say your child really liked going to the amusement park. You listed this in one of your documents about your son's favorite things. But, the day came he didn't find it so amusing anymore. The loud noises terrified him.
Because it's easy to forget about updating little details like that, since it's buried in a folder hiding in a cabinet, the person in charge of continuing care for your now-28-year-old comes across it and says, "He likes the amusement park!! Great! I'll take him there this weekend for a fun outing!"
That is a recipe for disaster. If you had Vest to help organize all-things-special-needs, you could replace "amusement park" with "library" with just a click.
Vest makes it easy and stressless to become super organized about your child's life without adding to the paper clutter in your home. The degree of organization you will quickly and simply achieve will not only make you feel accomplished: it will help all those involved in your child's life down the road to know all the stuff you know.
Most importantly, with Vest, your child (or teen, or adult, living with special needs) will have the best chance for a seamless transition to continued care. That thought alone would reduce your worry a great deal, wouldn't it?
Check out Vest today...get organized even more than you thought possible!
