Texas Department Of Assistive And Rehabilitative Services
Dars, east austin field office wonderful program concept, weird caseworker wasting tax payer money

I was certified as disabled and chose to enroll in one of the best programs in the usa!

Since 1929, texas has had the vocational rehabilitation program which provides medical care and career retraining to disabled people who can no longer remain in their previous field of employment. If you need glasses, wheelchair, etc. It will be provided. To those who want to work and have pride, dignity, self-respect.

Amazing program, really.

My problem is i chose to enroll in a program that trained people for a profession that dars told me would be greatly in demand —before the economy crashed. Not the fault of the program.

The financial aid people at austin community college rio grande campus would also delay my tuition payment. I would pre-register for classes and then, because the money had allegedly not been paid on time, i would be dropped from my classes and someone else would get my space. When i would finally get the clearance that the aid had come through, i had less than 12 hours to register and then the class that i needed was full. Also, you had to take 12 hours or four classes to be considered a full-time student which they later dropped to 9 hours or three classes.
I do not know what sort of scam they were pulling on me but it ultimately cost me the chance to get my associate's degree because i could not take the classes i needed in the proper sequence.

I found out if i changed my major, i could take a lot of classes that would help me in various areas of legal specialization but the aid ran out leaving me with three hours short of an associates degree in criminal justice and nine hours short of an associates degree in paralegal studies.

When i was able to get financial grants for lower income students, i dropped out of the dars program because i wanted people who were unable to get the grants i was to have that tuition money.

So now, i wanted to see if the dars vocational rehabilitation people could help me find work.

It is very difficult to be certified as disabled for this program. They sent me to a medical doctor who is a specialist in my disability and he ordered mri and x-rays to document it. They also sent me to the mhmr resource in my county at not much expense to taxpayers for a psychological evaluation to see if i was capable of working. It all checked out.

The last time i went to the east austin dars office, my case had been dumped onto a overworked case worker who was a hairtrigger away from burnout and i was the last person she wanted to see. I have no idea what she wrote in my case file but whatever it was, nobody has a civil thing to say to me once they read it. I guess i will have to ask to see it under the texas public information laws. Wonder how much they will redact.
I will probably have to correct a lot of misinformation.

I once went to the north austin dars office but those people acted like they couldn't take on another case either...

I figured it would all be the same no matter which dars office

I figured it is all the same since my file has probably been computerized so i might as well go back to the east austin office. I figured that ms sunshine, the caseworker who had cursed and moaned about getting another case would be gone by attrition or retirement.

I hadn't counted on mr. Wonderful though.

When i first saw this guy, he looked like an american indian. I am half native american —choctaw, lumbee and cherokee to be exact. From the reception i got, i think our people must have been at war back in the day from the look on his face. He seemed to be "out there."

He hadn't talked with me more than a dew minutes before he told me that i had "bipolar disorder." i did not see any diplomas and certifications on the wall qualifying this guy as a clinical psychologist or an md behind his name that certified him as a psychiatrist—and i always look on the walls of any degreed professional. At most, this joker may have a msw or a bachelors of social work and he might be a licensed substance abuse counselor. He doesn't even know me and he is trying to hang a rather serious psychiatric disorder on me... The only inherited disorders in my family are cardiovascular. We have never had a psychiatric patient on either side of the family.

He then breaks into rapid fire questioning like he is a parole officer or something or maybe a probation officer. I took some classes in corrections operation at school. So what is up with this?

He then tells me i am going to be sent to a clinic to be screened for entry into the program and then i am going to see a clinical psychologist.

He has my case file which is huge sitting on the desk before him and he already has all of my information so why is he wanting to spend more taxpayer money? We are going to be running a deficit and these are unnecessary expendiures.

I went to my car and one of my friends who came with me — because this is not a neighborhood you enter alone— asked me if that was the case worker i went to see. The guy had raced out of the door on the pretext of lighting a cigarette to see what sort of car i had gotten into.

Why?

The clinic he sent me to was a primacare storefront clinic where they do only the most preliminary checks. And maybe you can speak with a physician for a few seconds. I later learned i was here primarily to get a drug screen. I don't use. Does this clown think i am a heroin addict and a psychiatric case?

I went through the usual blood pressure check, the weigh in, the temperature check and then i had a few seconds with a surly, arrogant muslim doctor who appeared to be a resident and not a full md. He could hardly wait to get me out of there. I passed the drug test. Ho hum.

The clinical psychologist evaluation was surreal.

In the first place, the office is located next to a second-rate strip club! I was supposed to call ahead to confirm my appointment but i can'[t always find a friend with a cell phone.

I was given a battery of tests by an office assistant —comprehension of the english language, grammar, spelling and simple math. I had a pencil and paper so i could see what i was doing. So far, ok.

Then, i was introduced to a nice young hispanic man who appeared to be a psychology graduate student and a puerto rican woman who appeared to be his graduate adviser. They then showed me some geometric diagrams in a book and then gave me a box of blocks and i was supposed to duplicate the designs in the book using the blocks. Then they started talking rather loudly and taking and making cell phone calls while i was trying to figure out what to do with the damned blocks. I did not know if this was a test to see how well i dealt with stress or they were just that rude and disrespectful of me because they thought i was some charity case sent by the state. I think they would have shown a rat in a maze more courtesy.

Eventually, i stopped playing with the blocks and politely refused to go on.

They then asked me to work some math problems and i asked them if i could have a pencil and paper and they said no. I did attempt a few problems but by this time, i was just as sick of them and their rudeness as they were of me.

They then asked me questions about my opinion about dr. Martin luther king, ghandi, malcolm x and hitler. I said the usual banalities and then, it was time to see the clinical psychologist.

If i had met this man under any other circumstances, i would probably have liked him. He had a lot of books on mexican culture and history and he had a lot of credentials on the wall. He was also a professor emeritus at the university of texas at austin and appeared to be a very old man. I like that. I didn't want some rookie experimenting with me.

He told me that he had known mr. Wonderful for years and respected him and that he deeply cared about his clients. (like hell). Well, i had brightened to the fact that this might be the first intellectual conversation i had since i had been out of college which he misinterpreted as "hypermania."

How stupid is this. That is a term that used to be bantered about in the 1940s and 190s and maybe earlier than that and probably isn't even used anymore by the apa. Dude didn't know that i am naturally reserved and do not get the chance to talk about deep and philosophical subjects and i thought that he was actually wanting to diagnose me.

Instead, he lit in and said i had "bipolar disorder." i have only been there a ferw minutes and not said more than yes and no answers. Then i realized that i had been set up. Mr. Wonderful had given him a list of questions he had asked me at the east austin dars intake interview. And he was going to use this nice old man to back him up.

What followed then was a battering, not a diagnostic interview. This was a gestapo interrogation, a hostile cross examination and a non-stop threatening hell all in one. I had no idea why i was being subjected to this hammering and would have walked out.

This guy's mind had been made up before he ever saw me. I never had a chance or a real diagnosis thanks to mr. Wonderful.

I felt that he was going to call the travis county sheriffs department mental health officers and have me taken to the austin state hospital for an involuntary commitment and 72-hour observation. I thought maybe i should have tried harder to work with the damned blocks if he was going to be this angry.

After he was finished shouting at me, i decided to hell with the dars program... At least for me.

After i finished, the office assistant lady gave me a clipboard on ith there was a paper some open-ended sentences that i was supposed to complete. I am expecting the mental health officers to arrive any minute and you want me to do what? Were they stalling for time?

I wonder what they thought i was going to say? I was as non-committal as possible and when i finished, they said i could leave.

How did i keep my cool under the circumstances? By knowing i would write about this on the rip off report and expose what appeared to me to be a fee splitting and referral scam on the rip off report.

I am not naming names because i do not know for sure that there is a referral racket going on, just that an ordinary case worker should not have the power to refer a client anywhere! It is too easy to assume that the caseworker is paid from the money the professional makes when he or she is paid by the state. Sweet deal. And if the mental health professional does not say what the caseworker tells them to say, no more referrals.

Why would they want to treat a client like this?

I was hoping like everything i would not have to see this large, ancient and angry man for counseling. Maybe he was the reason that mr. Wonderful was such a mess.

So when i showed up for my next appointment, mr. Wonderful did not even bother to tell me the results of my physical and psychological profile, he was more interested in telling me that i was not going to school this fall and wanting to know and how and where i was living. None of his business about where and how i am living.

He then asks me for my access information to my austin community college student computer account which i gave him because i knew i had myself deleted from the system when i left. He tried everything he could to get into my student account and i was sitting there thinking how wierd is this!!!

He said there were not many job options for me.

I asked him about the aarp foundation but he seemed shocked and offended i would even know about this. Other suggestions i made got the same response.

I did ask him about the physical exam at the primacare and he told me that the doctor said there was nothing wrong with me.

Dude, the doctor saw me for all of maybe dive ir six seconds and you have an entire file in front of you that documents my disability or i would not have been allowed to enter the dars program in the first place!

I then asked what the shrink had to say and he responded that the psychologist said i needed to see a psychiatrist. I wondered if mr. Wonderful would call ahead and tell the psychiatrist what to say too. I had enough of the entire farce.

He did manage to find me something — an on the job training scam with a local hotel. I would be trained as a desk clerk on a part time basis and be paid a salary. The salary would cause me to lose my food stamps and negatively impact my ssi. You see, there was no guarantee of employment at that hotel or any other after i finished the training. I have seen scams like this before where the scammers lured in a lot of willing and eager workers for minimum wage or a below minimum wage "training wage" and they would knock themselves out in efforts to get a permanent job when none was intended and none would be offered. Think of the money the scammers would save running hundreds of slave laborers through.

I did and it was sickening. You would not get unemployment after this job training ended and no one was going to pick up your option either. This program would leave me worse off than i was now.

What mr. Wonderful did not know and i did is that i have a ticket to work and self sufficiency from social security administration that i could choose to spend with the state of texas dars program. I am essentially being retrained and made job ready and possibly get a federal job and the state would get the money for me.

After what happened to me because of him it will be a cold day in hell when i choose dars to do anything for me.

What a lousy scam artist.

I thanked him for his time and left.

I took my time about getting out of the office only to be greeted by my two friends in my car who had accompanied me to this part of town.

"that guy who is supposed to be your caseworker came running out of the doors and tried to get the license plate number of your car, " one of my friends said. "is that part of his job?"

I didn't think so.

It just got too weird for me and soon as i could get to a cell phone, i called in and canceled my next appointment.

This guy is a loser.in fact, i think he was the nut.

Avoid that east austin dars field office like the plague!!!

Company: Texas Department Of Assistive And Rehabilitative Services
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Austin
Address: 5811 BERKMAN DRIVE, #105
Phone: 15123837000
Site: tx.us

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