Aaron Reetz, his father, Gordon Reetz and step-mother, Susan Lee live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron is autistic and has developmental disabilities. Dr. Clarissa Kripke is on the clinical faculty of the University of California, San Francisco and is Director of Developmental Primary Care.
“And then a day or two later [Dr. Kripke] came to our house and did a whole medical exam with Aaron for three or four hours. And that was shocking to us and wonderful.” – Susan Lee
“We were, you know, terrified. We didn’t know how to–where to begin.” – Susan Lee
“…we just haven’t developed the capacity of the healthcare system to care for adults when they age out of that system.” – Dr. Clarssa Kripke
“There are very limited resources in terms of specialists who have particular interest and skill in working with adults with disabilities…”- Dr. Clarissa Kripke
“There is very, very, very limited access to special needs dentistry…” – Dr. Clarissa Kripke
“What we’re talking about is really developing a new field of medicine.” – Dr. Clarissa Kripke
“There really isn’t a board certification or training program in developmental medicine or developmental primary care.” – Dr. Clarissa Kripke
“There have been policy papers written by every major organization…and they all come to the same conclusion, which is that we need to train healthcare providers. The major barrier to making that happen is funding” – Dr. Clarissa Kripke
“This past few years have been the healthiest time of his whole life.” – Susan Lee