'Round, 'Round, Get Around, I Get Around

This saga with N. and Social Services has my stress hamster in overdrive. It feels like I'm getting the run around. Well, no, I'm taking teeny tiny steps forward by checking off the stuff I'm apparently getting wrong, but I feel like I'm being punished by inconvenience.

I've said this several times, and in this case, it bears repeating: For a country that produces so much high-tech, many government services, municipal services, and things like health insurance corporations are remarkably low-tech. I don't understand why I can't go to an administrative office and get what I need done with the click of a button or six. I don't understand why my health insurance user portal is not particularly user-friendly or intuitive for the non-everyday stuff like finding and filling out a form for their mental health center (that's not true. I know why. It's so folks get frustrated enough with trying to get an appointment, that they give up and never make that appointment). I also really wish people in an administrative role had an easy way to actually give correct assistance when asked about the non-everyday stuff.

I called the number I was given for the Maccabi mental health center in Beersheva. Immediately a robovoice tells me to go to the website and fill out a form, and then call back. Robovoice does not tell me what type of form I need to fill out. The website does not have anything about ASD diagnosing. So I click something at random (after hitting Translate to English because the important stuff I need as a patient is only in Hebrew) and I can't find anything about "filling out a form to make an appointment".

I call the number again, and press 1 as instructed. And I let it ring for 5 minutes before hanging up (yes, this is during their scant business hours). The phone doesn't even transfer me to an auto "leave your name, phone number, and ID number and someone will get back to you" option.

So, N. and I head over to the main Maccabi office, take a number, and wait to talk to an administrator. When it's finally our turn, N. gives his information and tells her he allows me to participate in the conversation (he's over 18, and they need his consent). She tells us we have to call the number - where I interrupt her and tell her we tried that. She tells us to go to the website - I interrupt her again and tell her we tried that, does she perhaps know where on the website we're supposed to go and/or which form do we fill out? No, sorry, she's not mental health services. Their office is in another location, which she tells me. Turns out I know the place and it's closer to where we live now.

I had to get to work, and since I'm unemployed as of Tuesday (this visit was on Sunday), I told N. we'll go on Tuesday to the office, as directed. And so we went. And were told to call the - I interrupted the lady and told her I tried. And that I tried the website, before she could offer that nugget of advice. She told me that no one was on site today (see reference above about scant business hours), and besides, it seems what I need would be at yet a third location. But chances are they were closed. She did, however, offer to send them a message that we needed to speak to someone. We thanked her, and left.

N. and I were about to separate - he to the mall, and I back home to get chores done after writing out this megillah, apparently - when his phone rang (see above about me not being able to deal with his medical issues. I think we're going to have to make a separate trip to the administrative office so I can get medical guardianship over him) and he answered. And lo and behold, it was someone from the Maccabi mental health offices. So, there we were, standing on the corner of a random Beersheva street, discussing N. on speakerphone. At some point, I took the phone from N., took it off speaker because I was having difficulty hearing the woman.

I explained to the woman the situation, and she had the exact same reaction that I did. N. is on the spectrum, the diagnosis hasn't changed, what the hell is Social Services playing at? She'd never heard of this issue before. What can I say? We Ks tend to overachieve in some things (I wouldn't mind overachieving tonight at getting all 6 plus the bonus number in the Loto drawing! Just putting it out there, universe.). She said she needed to talk to her supervisor and she'll get back to me. I gave her my phone number, and we hung up.

And this is where we stand as of now. On the potential plus side, Maccabi is moving into a big, new building at some point in the near future, so I'm hoping things might become more consolidated. Oh, who am I kidding. They'll just find new ways to be inefficient.

Edit: Just heard from the woman. She said she's never heard of Social Services demanding a new diagnosis, and the mental health center doesn't diagnose after 18 anyway. I asked her where we should go, and she had no idea. She told me to tell Social Services that Maccabi doesn't do the diagnosing after age 18 and if they're insisting he needs a new diagnosis, they should provide the testing. Social Services has afternoon hours today, so we're going to go to their office. And since we moved to a new neighborhood, we'll need to be assigned a new social worker anyway. I've also contacted the national autism organization to see if they can offer assistance and advice.