Too long to wait!

For North Carolinians with intellectual and developmental disabilities, getting mental health treatment and other services that enable someone to live at home can be challenging. 

Many parents and caregivers add their children with disabilities to a statewide waiting list to receive services under something called the Innovations Waiver, a North Carolina Medicaid program for people with disabilities who need regular assistance to continue living independently. Receiving these services can prevent people with disabilities from having no choice other than to live in a group home or other institutional setting.

One Chatham County mother told NC Health News that she felt as if her teenage son with autism “hit the mental health care jackpot” when he finally got on the Innovations Waiver a few years ago. 

Prior to receiving the Innovations Waiver, Bridget Narsh’s son Mason had been in and out of emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals because there were so few other resources to help him. Read more.