Fighting for Answers | Category Archives: Mental Health – You | Page 14Mental Health - You Archives - Page 14 of 23

PRTF placement update.

David was away from his residential Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility. He was undergoing a med wash at another facility in our state. Since David is a special needs child, and was a special needs adoption to begin with, he is covered by Medicaid until he turns 18. In order to be placed in a facility, something called a certificate of need (CON) is generated periodically. Typically, 90 days. David’s latest CON is for 30 days. Why? Because while David was away from the facility we didn’t undergo family therapy. David has a number of diagnoses, including Reactive Attachment Disorder. Because of David’s birth history and prenatal care, he has a tolerance for medications. He builds up a tolerance very quickly. Any med will only be good for about six months. We learned this through experience, and explained this to the staff at the facility where he resides. As I stated,

a smile, and a wakeup

My sleep schedule is messed up because of illness. I might sleep 14 hours today and none tomorrow. I sleep when my body lets me. Today, I was in the middle of a rem cycle, and the phone rang. How awesome that David called two days in a row. He asked if I was sleeping, and I told him, “I am never too asleep to talk to you.” I don’t know how long he will continue these calls, but any interruption in my day is welcome when it comes to him. Yesterday he called twice. Loving it. During each conversation, he never stayed on one topic for more than a minute or two. Tweet #fighting4answrs

Update on David.

David is finally admitting that he tried to harm himself. It took some prompting, and he acts like it is no big deal. He said that he didn’t mean to scare anyone when he wrapped the shoestrings around his throat. He thinks that they are letting him go back to the residential facility tomorrow, but we haven’t heard anything about it. All the same. In other news, we are going to get an advocate involved to see if we can get an aide in the classroom just for David. That coupled with the changes in his meds, and we hope to get him to stay in the classroom. A second IEP meeting has been scheduled because we disagreed with the first one. Initially, mom and I were under the impression that the school could determine when he was sent elsewhere for placement. With the aide of the clinical and residential