As a mother to a 12 year old medically complex son, I absolutely can not believe that we are being expected to fight yet again for services. Is the system not complex enough as it is? This increases the load on parents and puts stress on their children, leaving us at risk of losing services. In order to find an attendant for my son, they must first be willing to drive to extremely rural Buckingham county for low wages and no benefits. Then they must also be comfortable with all that goes along with caregiving, including and not limited to: feeding, lifting g 100+ pound child, bathing. Toileting including wiping and cleaning, diaper changing, feeding tube care, intermittent catherization, first aid if choking or falls were to occur, CPR , seizure first aid, and all daily living tasks. When you have a nonverbal/disabled child you also risk abuse. Allowing parents the option to be caregivers under consumer directed is absolutely the best and least stressful choice for both parents and child. There is already an extreme shortage of caregiving attendants willing to do all this. By removing this choice you risk children losing their much needed waiver services.