My Horror Story, A Former Client of Westside Regional Center

 The Regional Centers within the state of California work with so-called people with disabilities, however their services are geared more for the mentally retarded.

In the past, I was a client of Westside Regional Center. The service coordinators would write up a report on the clients which was called a Individual Program Plan, also known as an IPP. For my first IPP meeting we met at a McDonald’s on La Tijera Boulevard. At my IPP meeting I tried to talk to these people on a professional, intelligent level. This Service Coordinator wanted to know why the caregiver was terminated, I tried to explain to the Service Coordinator that for the last couple of months the caregiver would arrive to my house late. All the Service Coordinator was interested in finding out is if I was sexually attracted to the caregiver. This Service Coordinator was trying to find out if I was trying to get in the pants of the caregiver. I told her “NO” that could be considered sexual harassment and ‘verbal abuse. The Service Coordinator said, a lot of people who have a disability who sometimes dose not get out in their community a lot, might find someone who comes into their house to perform a service [cleaning or preparing meals] they, the person with a disability might find them to be “attractive.” Because of this Service Coordinator, the vendor lost the contract and a lot of people lost their jobs. This service coordinator might have been jealous of the caregiver?

With the bad economy that we are in, this service coordinator did a great thing by cutting back on services. Other service coordinators should use this as a good example to cut back on services to their consumers/clients.

My second service coordinator:

The Service Coordinator wrote “As other SC prior to this SC also mentioned the Harold that his home was very unkept and needed a lot of cleaning. Harold stated that.he understands that perhaps his home is a dirty but it’s his choice to live in this environment and no one has the right to tell him how to live.” It is not really my choice to live like this, I just deal with it. This service coordinator has the director wrapped around their little finger!!

I have gone through quite a few service coordinators from Westside Regional Center. One day I had an appointment to go in and meet with my service coordinator. I left my house about two hours before my appointment time, while I was in route on the bus to my appointment my service coordinator called and left me a message, that they would not be in on this day. My personal attendant said that they would meet me at Westside Regional Center for this meeting. When we arrived at West side Regional Center my personal attendant and I went in and announced that we were here for my semiannual meeting. That is when we were told that my Service Coordinator had called in sick. We met with the service coordinator of the day, this was a very big mistake. This Service Coordinator was very rude and very disrespectful to me, because I was a Caucasian man sitting in an electric wheelchair. I would ask this service coordinator a question they would turn away from me ignoring me and answer to the personal attendant. This went on for a bout 2 or 3 times, then I told this service coordinator that I am the client and you need to talk to me. This Service Coordinator still refused to talk to me. I went over to the receptionist and ask them to please call the director to come down here now!! When the director of Westside Regional Center came into the room, I explained to the director, that this service coordinator was refusing to talk to me. The director of Westside Regional Center forced this service coordinator to talk to me. This service coordinator started perspiring, I thought that he was going to have a heart attack because he had to talk to me. I thought to myself, if this person does not like talking to people with disabilities then they should not be in this industry. Did the director violate the civil rights of this service coordinator by forcing them to talk to me?

My next service coordinator explained to me that it would cost me about $100.00 per month for someone to come out to clean my house. I explained to the service coordinator that since the year 2008 my eBay business has been very slow and I have not made enough money on it to pay out $100.00 per month for someone to come in and clean my house.

Someone from Westside Regional Center told a caregiver that I could not  feed myself or communicate. No one from Westside Regional Center called to tell me that they were going to send out a caregiver to feed me and teach me how to communicate. Maybe Westside Regional Center needs to hire this caregiver to teach the service coordinators how to communicate with their consumers/clients. This caregiver made an appointment to meet with me at 2 PM at my house. I waited around at my house for about two hours for the caregiver to come out, they never showed up so when they called me back I was tired of waiting for them so I told them to meet me down at a fast food restaurant. I arrived at the fast food restaurant the caregiver was not there, so I went ahead and ordered my meal. I started eating my meal and was feeding myself when the caregiver came in to the restaurant. The caregiver started to watch me feed myself, they did not tell me that it was their job feed me and they shoved a napkin in my mouth without telling me what they were doing. I ask the caregiver if they wanted anything to eat or drink, for themselves. Then I gave them my gift card to pay for it. The caregiver was very nervous about ordering anything to drink or eat. I went over to the counter to try and figure out what this caregiver wanted, I explain to the order taker to order whatever they caregiver wanted and I would pay for it. This caregiver was very surprised that I could feed myself speak english and comprehend english. Westside Regional Center expected this caregiver to feed me three meals a day teach me how to communicate all on 20 hours per month. It looks like Westside Regional Center might be operating a slave labor camp. Whenever we arrived back at my house the caregiver started asking me a lot of personal questions a bout my parents medical history and medical history of my sister. I asked the caregiver why they needed to know the medical history of my parents and my sister? The caregiver refused to answer my question. I also asked the caregiver who at Westside Regional Center  told them that I could not feed myself or communicate. The caregiver again refused to answer my questions. This caregiver explained to me that I need to hire someone to come in and clean my house. I explained to this caregiver that my eBay business has been very slow since the year 2008 and I do not have enough money to justify having someone come in to clean my house. By this time I was getting to be very upset about all of this. I can see now that the  paid employees at Westside Regional Center and their vendors are used to working with mentally retarded people, people who cannot feed themselves or communicate.

It is very difficult to get a straight answer from anyone at Westside Regional Center.

Westside Regional Center cannot be responsible for the actions of their paid employees or their vendors. It looks like that the paid employees of Westside Regional Center walk all over the management. The paid employees of Westside Regional Center are not good team players at all. The paid employees of Westside Regional Center are professionally trained college educated. I hope that First Lady Michelle Obama does not find out about the bad service that I received from Westside Regional Center.

Paid employees of Westside Regional Center are trained professionals with a college education. The question is, what college degree do these paid employees have?

The services that Westside Regional Center offers are Free!!

For more information you may please call: 1-310-258-4000 or email at: info@westsiderc.org.

I hope that someone from Facebook reads this blog?

I look forward to reading everyone’s comments on this blog!!