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Fifteen Days Post FASD Camp

So fifteen days ago David had the opportunity to attend FASD Camp. Summer camp. The day I dropped him off, I snapped a selfie of the two of us. Minutes after snapping this photo, he was off meeting new friends with the same disability that he has. The Disability Yes. My son has a disability. You can’t tell it by looking at him. That disability is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). It is not the only one he has, but it is the focus of this post. We learned last winter of this camp called fasdcamp. It is just for kids with FASD. Thus began the process of applying for camp which began before he came home from care in January. In mid-April, we learned that he had been accepted. This was after a rather lengthy telephone conversation with the camp medical director about David’s condition. See, they want to

Compliance – Continued Medication Issues

Compliance – Continued Medication Issues We are in week two of David’s not getting his medication as prescribed. Thus, he is out of compliance, though it appears to be a systems issue. Today, I contacted the detention unit, asked to speak to the medical person, and was transferred to him. When I asked what the issue was, the nurse said “he is not in compliance.” I asked, if he was refusing to take the medication, and rather than providing me an answer, he said “who is the probation worker?” (I use probation worker as a loose descriptor for the person involved in David’s case.) I explained who we are working with, and gave the nurse that information, as well as contact information for the worker. The nurse then said “thank you” and ended the call. So I called and left a message for the probation worker. I also called our

SMI and the Tragedy of Adulthood

SMI – Serious Mental Illness The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which defines SMI (Serious Mental Illness) as: A mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders); Diagnosable currently or within the past year; Of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria specified within the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV); and, Resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. So, what does this have to do with David? David came to us when he was 18 months old. We became his parents, legally, 6 months later. In truth, since he was just months old, he has been a part of our lives. Mom had a home daycare. And we filled in as needed for his foster family‘s day care provider. David is 15 now, in the blink of an