I agree. As I said, as a special needs grandparent, we would do whatever they ask for if it was a real situation.
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This is something I was concerned about when I first signed up. This happens a lot in society, unfortunately. A few bad actors end up ruining the reputation of an entire program or benefit.
Entitlement programs like Medicaid and SNAP come to mind. There are thousands of people who legitimately need these services. There are some donât, and attempt to access them anyway. Making these programs harder to access may weed out some of those who donât need them, but youâll inevitably accidentally weed out some people who do need them.
As Scott mentioned, there arenât many systemic/automatic safeguards you can put in place that arenât easily circumvented, or that may inadvertently stop people from accessing TMTs who legitimately need one.
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I appreciate everyones thoughts and opinions on this topic. We do vetting, its mostly to make sure they have a verified email address and a good location.
I will not agree to put up more barriers because of any situation (hypothetic or not) with bad actors. Even if this does happen (which i highly doubt), I will not allow the actions of .1% make it harder to access these devices for everyone else.
Also if someone really started selling these devices we can A - know where they got them from, and B - take steps to report this behavior internally and externally.
As a reminder, Makers are not allow to vet or otherwise sus out the personal situation with families. Makers are not allowed to ask about medical information and conditions. We are trying to make sure the families understand to not share medical conditions either. All communication with the family must be about making and delivering the device. This is for everyoneâs privacy.
Please continue to keep in mind for unresponsive or unappreciative families - these people are typically in a daily survival mode. They have a ton to deal with.
Yall are the heart of our community, and I appreciate every one of you so much.
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I have only asked what colors/themes they are interested in so I can try my best to accommodate this. I also will ask if there is a public meeting location thatâs most convenient for them instead of having to go to their home. I donât ever ask anything personal though as itâs not my place to do so. A side question to this is I understand lives are busy esp in these situations, how long is an appropriate time that most wait for a response, to make sure I am doing things correctly?
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I do ask, âFor your situation is the extended handle and/or headrest needed? Some familyâs chose those are un-needed which is why I ask.â
Non specific, just a parts question.
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when I finish my TMT I planned on putting its serial number on under the seat and I think my next one I will emboss it (raised letters). I think its cool to have a serial number or something. Its kind of a hold over from when I used to own a Delorean DMC-12, former owner of VIN 4875.
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Here is my two cents: If someone ends up flipping a TMT, at the end, a child will end up with a way to be mobile, probably weeks faster than if they went through a legitimate process.
I think it is a scummy thing for anyone to do (obtain a TMT with intent to profit), and this individual should suffer all the wrath of the internet.
I did not make this post to justify this type of behavior, but to encourage anyone who has doubts or worries about bad actors to remember that they are still making a positive impact on childâs life.
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Maybe under the seat should be engraved a heart with " 3D printed for free, with Love "
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Thank you everybody for your input, I appreciate how kind everybody in this community is with questions and concerns. I am taking the words I told my children regarding it⌠we canât control what others do, we can only control what we do. Actions show a persons character and at the end of the day as long as you know your actions and intentions were for the greater good thatâs what matters.
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Another thought: if we spread the word about the site enough, hopefully nobody will get scammed into paying for a TMT.. since theyâll know they can go to the site and request one for free.
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Add the childs first name that it was built for, as well.
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Love this! I donât think a huge amount will do this, and every chair I have provided has been through our daughterâs early intervention therapist. Luckily, we work with stark board of DD. I also recently delivered to a family who wanted to meet us! We are definitely reaching more good people, so Iâd hate to ruin it for the ones who deserve it.
Providing extra paperwork is a good idea, but as a medical family, as Noam said, we are always in survival mode. Constantly sending in paperwork, attending hearings, fighting insurance, especially right nowâmedical families are losing SO much support. Our days are spent begging for support or the care our kids deserve. I have endless amounts of paperwork and files of Stormiâs medical history. On top of ordering supplies and hoping itâs covered so you wonât have to pay out of pocket and maybe be late on another utility bill, daily needs of the kids, anything extra can just cause so much stress where families may be so exhausted from everything they donât even have energy to request a chair if it means more paperwork or proving why our kids need help.
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For example, today we had our third evaluation for ABA where another clinic denied Stormi because she is Gtube fed, but otherwise qualifies.
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Thatâs 6 hours of evaluations to end up getting a denial. I had to provide 109 pages to each provider.
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So So sorry, with all the government waste, fraud and abuse, I understand the challenges, but there is no more common sense. 109 pages? How can you even process that as a provider? That is criminal.
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My wife does ABA its sad for sure
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