Dear Customers of TheContractorsGroupOur son's deteriorating mental health has dictated that I unfortunately can no longer offer telephone support in a timely manner. Below is a more detailed explanation... January 2007 When I (Diane) started our downloadable construction forms business so many years ago in California we had a healthy daughter (Shelby, 8 years old) and a not-quite-so healthy son (Cameron, 6 years old) but he was able to somewhat cope with life, and I used to list our home number for support to my customers. That has unfortunately changed. While our daughter is, thank goodness, pretty much cruising through life ace'ing everything she tries, our son Cameron is having worse and worse difficulties. He has Asperger's Syndrome (a form of Autism), and suffers from Bi-Polar Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Executive Dysfunction, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, severe depression, possible mental retardation and several other issues (he has been psychiatrically hospitalized 3 times in the past 9 months). As he grows older his problems are worsening. He's currently 13 1/2 years old physically, but mentally and emotionally in many respects he's only 6 and even younger. It's understandable that things are worsening for him because as you grow older you're expected to conform more and more to the "norm" but with his problems he cannot conform. It's like an immature 6 year old trying to cope in a 13 1/2 year old's world; in many respects it's just not possible and his "melt-downs" (often violent towards himself and/or towards us) have become a regular occurrence. The doctors have told us that he will probably have to live with us forever because he'll be unable to keep his life together on his own. I don't like to think about what will happen when we're gone. He needs constant supervision which takes up MUCH of my attention. In addition I'm constantly taking him to doctor appointments, psychiatric appointments, counseling appointments, special needs group gatherings, attending meetings for his special education, making never-ending phone calls to schedule appointments, and so on. Because of the huge amount of time I have to spend with him and on his growing issues, my normally outstanding phone support has been suffering greatly over the past couple years. I often can't even answer the phone when it rings and it sometimes takes days, even weeks, to return calls. It's become very apparent to me that I MUST figure out a way to be able to handle our son's many on-going needs while still supporting my customers. I have found that, unfortunately, the best way to do this right now is to discontinue phone support indefinitely and handle everything via email. There are a couple reasons for this... First, because Cameron needs intense supervision it's impossible to talk on the phone without constant interruption to do something for him. When working via email I can stop typing immediately to tend to him whereas when on the phone I have to repeatedly ask the caller to hold while I take care of him/his needs. Second, because I'm gone a lot for various appointments for him, I purchased a Verizon wireless card so that I can get online anywhere to answer emails (this wireless card is the coolest thing, it works almost everywhere, doctor's offices, waiting rooms, on the road, etc.!). I totally understand if my lack of telephone support causes you to not want to purchase from me. All I can do is: A) promise you that I'm really very good on answering my emails, usually within less than an hour of receiving them, and B) hope that you'll give me a chance. :) I do promise you a 100% refund if you're unsatisfied with my service and/or the documents that you purchase. If you have any concerns, questions, comments, etc., please do feel free to email me and I promise I'll get back to you asap. :) Sincerely, Diane Dennis www.TheContractorsGroup.com store.construction-business-forms.com ps: To get back to the page you were at before this one, please close this window, and thank you for your understanding. :) pps: While we used to live in California we are now in Washington. We moved here December of 2006 in an effort to get more help for our son than we could get in California. I still have all of my California connections however so if you have any questions or need any help with anything please do not hesitate to email me. :) Thank you again! Diane UPDATE June 21, 2007 Due to some new counseling sessions we have just started, Wednesdays will now be a tough day for customer service, even via email. The specialists we're seeing are roughly 3 hours away one-way from our home in Oak Harbor to Seattle, thru some of the worst traffic I've ever seen. I'm going to do my best to check for, and respond to, email after the drive and before the session starts but I've no doubt there's going to be times where I won't be able to respond until after 5:00 pm or so, once we get back to our home. This will be on-going indefinitely. I'm very sorry about this and I promise I'll do my best to take care of you. Thank you for your support! Diane UPDATE September 8, 2008 Due to many things we've done (ie: intense counseling we've all received; working from home instead of out of the house to be available to take care of Cameron's many needs; lots of research with trial and error; moving from CA to WA and slowing down life, etc.) we've managed to (and I say this with cautious superstition) stabilize Cameron. =) We still fear his psychotic melt-downs (I love him dearly but there's just no other way to term these occurrences) but he does seem to be handling transition a little better now (again knock on wood, he just started 9th grade a few days ago). Over the past year we've managed to get him off of all of his psychiatric medications, which we are so tickled about. We focus a lot on behavior modification, coping techniques to help him handle his anger, repetition repetition repetition while trying to minimize our own frustration caused by having to unrelentingly repeat everything, and just trying to parent in the way that works best for him, but zero medication does often mean more mental breakdowns. But, whereas we used to live literally "15 minutes to 15 minutes", we now actually can go a few hours without an incident! The more rigid (and I mean R-I-G-I-D) his environment is the better he does but it's tough to be as rigid as he needs, 24/7. When we lived in California the school district refused to place him in any kind of special-ed and he struggled, floundered, drowned in the mainstream. His level of immaturity plus his daily frustrations, sensory disorders, inability to "read between the lines" and myriad of other problems caused him to be a big target of bullies, he had no friends and he couldn't make it through one period (30-45 minutes) without more than one outburst or call home. When we moved here in December 2006 it was the same old story but after fighting through 2007 the school district finally placed him in the special-ed program in January 2008 and it has made such a difference for him, on so many levels. As I mentioned above, he just started 9th grade three days ago and we have yet to get a phone call from the school during the day requiring us to run down and take care of a problem. This is a first since he started Kindergarten, and even daycare prior to that! We used to get calls almost daily, often culminating in us having to go to the school to intervene and/or bring Cameron home. Now though, the teachers and administration recognize that he's NOT a rabble-rouser or problem causer, rather he's a kid who WANTS to do good but who needs help to do so. And they teach him in the way that is best for him (one size fits all doesn't fit him), and they recognize when he's "nearing that point" and can help to de-escalate him before something becomes a problem. This makes a big difference in how he gets through his day. He's got friends now (friends!!), kids from his special-ed class. These kids hang out here and spend the night, indeed this past Summer seemed a perpetual slumber party... While it's overwhelming and "double-trouble" when a friend is here (because the friends have their own special-needs like Cameron does), we still do everything we can to make it happen because we want Cameron and his friends here where we know they're safe and having fun. He's learning social and life skills (skills that are "second nature" to most folks), so important for these kids yet so difficult for them to learn. Parenting him is still "ExhaustionSquared", he still needs pretty much constant attention, he bounces from activity to activity, he has an undeniable need to be in the same room with me when he's home from school, and every two minutes he's asking me to watch what he's doing (playing a video game, playing with his tech deck, etc.) or telling me the latest and greatest facts on Pokemon and/or Yu-Gi-Oh, or just clamoring for my undivided attention like he is right now, head butting me from behind, but we are spurred on by the fact that what we're doing seems to be working or at least helping. There's no telling what tomorrow might bring but for the first time in many years we are actually hopeful for his future. =) I'm even thinking that I'm going to be able to bring back my phone support, albeit on a limited basis... But one step at a time... That's one of many things I've learned from life with Cameron, it's definitely "one step at a time"... Thank you again so much for your support, without it I wouldn't have been able to work from home and be available for Cameron's needs, and I truly believe we wouldn't have made the progress that we have so far. =) I hope you have a wonderful day! Diane
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