The answer should be yes. Not "how can I get my loved one help?"

Category Archives: Mental Health – Child

Mental health articles relating to a condition your child might have can be found here.

travelling to see David, a sadness.

We live on the great plains of our country.  Northern Great Plains.  we are about 550 miles from the residential facility where David lives.

I wish we had train service between here and there.  The nearest depot to his residence is like 5 hours.

the last Amtrak went into Billings, MT in 1979.  With the cost of fuel the way it is, I wonder if they would reestablish it… probably not.

for those who recommend bus travel, my body wouldn’t do well sitting in one place for that length of time.

ah well, car it is.

the kids are putting every coin they can find into the piggy bank for us to go see him.  even offered their birthday money.

makes my heart sad that I can’t do better.  But my disability check only goes so far.

frustrated, disbelief, sadness

I alternate between disbelief, anger and sadness.

It wasn’t our primary choice to place David in his current residence.  It was the only option available at the time because his previous placement, “didn’t feel they were the best place for him and that he needed a more restricted environment.”

So now, someone thinks that we don’t really want David in our lives.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If I thought that David was stable enough to be home permanently, he would be.  You wouldn’t be reading this, and we wouldn’t be bothered by the fact that he is 500 miles from home.

So what can we do?  Today, I called someone within our schools who we have been at odds with in the past regarding David and thanked them for supporting us.  Yes.  Sometimes support comes from the places we least expect it.

If driving out to his facility once a month is what it takes to show them that we want to be in his life, then that is what we will do.  Funding it is something entirely different, but the Lord will provide.

 

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What if I said David might be coming home soon…

So, it has been a while since I last posted. Really not a lot to report about David.  He has changed little.  Except he isn’t yet showing the aggressive behaviors that he has in the past.  But it has only been 4 months, in his current placement, so I think that it is only a matter of time.

We have a monthly staffing for David that involves the whole team.  Today I was late getting on the call, had car trouble and while I had my cell phone with me, I didn’t have the contact number for the conference system.

After the call was over, I contacted our care coordinator to see what I had missed.

1)  Medicaid is only approving 30 days right now, of care, because they think that he could be served just as well at home.

2)  Psychiatrist asked if “mom and dad want David to return home, ever.”  (I am not certain of the exact verbiage, but you get the idea)

3)  Both the care coordinator and the principal from David’s elementary school defended us.  Not sure if defended is the right word or not, but they explained that we tried for a lot of year’s to keep David home  before deciding to place him in residential care.

To say that I am frustrated that some faceless person who likely doesn’t have a background in psychiatry, and is just following prompts on a screen, has a decision in the long term care that our son receives…  yeah.  I am not happy.

So what happens to David in 30 days, if they decide that his current placement isn’t appropriate?  and that he can come home?

I would love it if David could be at home rather than in residential care.  But is that what is best for David?   How about for the rest of the family?  We have heard the term “rehome” used in the past.  David is our son.  We aren’t giving him away. We aren’t putting him up for adoption.  It wasn’t our idea to move him 550 miles from home.  We did that because there were no other options available at the time, and his last placement “gave up on him”.

David has been caught sneaking around in the bedrooms of other resident’s in the early morning hours while they are sleeping.  How is that an acceptable behavior?  He constantly provokes peers to get a reaction and doesn’t know why.  How is that an acceptable behavior?