{"id":4588,"date":"2016-12-04T00:15:57","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T05:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2019-03-06T22:26:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T03:26:22","slug":"tejus-turns-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/photos\/2016\/12\/04\/tejus-turns-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Tejus turns 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-one is an important birthday for Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism. Until they reach 21, Medicaid has to pay for\u00a0intensive services and supports, including behavioral and occupational therapies. As families\u00a0reach the “cliff,” the Sharathchandras of Squirrel Hill included, worry about receiving funding to maintain the services their children need to thrive. 13,000 Pennsylvanians are on the waiting list–with 4,500 on an emergency list–for these services. On Tejus Sharathchandra’s 21st birthday, his family not only celebrates his birthday, but that he will be receiving the consolidated waiver funding that ensures he will get services for life.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca
Tejus Sharathchandra stands in Taco Bell in Monroeville where he requested his parents take him for his birthday dinner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Tejus gets help playing Uno from a classmate at CITY Connections East in Squirrel Hill. CITY Connections provides life skills including social skills, including playing games, to people 18-21 living with intellectual disabilities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Lori Graziano, a professional care assistant, asks Tejus to play one more song on the piano. Tejus has been playing the piano on and off since 2009. He learns the music by watching other people play it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Lynne Carvell, program coordinator, waits with Tejus Sharathchandra as birthday candles are lit for his 21st birthday celebration at the Teen and Young Adult Center at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. This was the third of four cakes Tejus had to celebrate his birthday. The after school program is open to people with physical, intellectual, emotional and behavior challenges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Tejus carries his birthday balloon with him as he walks to the Teen and Young Adult Center at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. He goes to the JCC three days a week, where he plays games, swims, and participates in other social activities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Jonathan Wickstrom, a habilitation aid, encourages Tejus to join the group as they play “Duck, Duck, Goose” at the Teen and Young Adult Center at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. Jonathan works with Tejus 25 hours per week, helping him to learn and use life skills at home and in the community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Lori Graziano, a professional care assistant, jokes around with Tejus Sharathchandra as he waits for the bus outside City Connections East in Squirrel Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Tejus and Jonathan Wickstrom, a habilitation aid, walk to the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. “They let me be mom,” says Tejus’ mother Chitra Sharathchandra about having two habilitation aids who work with Tejus throughout the day. The habilitation aids help Tejus to learn and use life skills at home and in the community, a task that Chitra took on for years herself.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Tejus Sharathchandra plays “Duck, Duck, Goose,” with his habilitation aid Jonathan Wickstrom and others at Teen and Young Adult Center at the Jewish Community Center Wednesday, November 2, 2016. Jonathan made the birthday shirt that says “Made in 1995,” and “21 Years of Being Awesome.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Chitra Sharathchandra gives a kiss to her son Tejus as his brother Akshay,17, looks on as they celebrates Tejus’ 21st birthday at home in Squirrel Hill. The cake was his fourth of the day. With the habilitation aids and the consolidated waiver funding which will allow Tejus to continue getting services, Chitra has started looking for work in her field of computer science again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rebecca
Tejus waits for the school bus to arrive as he leaves CITY Connections East in Squirrel Hill on Wednesday, November 2, 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-one is an important birthday for Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities and autism. Until they reach 21, Medicaid has to pay for\u00a0intensive services and supports, including behavioral and occupational therapies. As families\u00a0reach the “cliff,” the Sharathchandras of Squirrel Hill included, worry about receiving funding to maintain the services their children need to thrive. 13,000 Pennsylvanians are… <\/p>\n

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