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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

Explaining mental illness to the siblings.

How do you explain mental illness to a child with Autism? Are you blunt in your explanations? Should it be explained? In our family, we have a child with severe mental illness. He is currently in the hospital. At home we have his siblings, how do we explain to the siblings the depth of the their brother’s illness? Or do we just not talk about it? In our house, everyone knows that David has needs that can’t be cared for at home. They understand that life at home is better without the constant stress of having David here. They understand lots of things, such as they don’t have to barricade themselves in their rooms. They can leave their stuff unhidden because David isn’t here to steal anything. They know that the animals are healthy because David isn’t here to poison them. Yet. They miss David.

Visited David tonight in Psych Unit.

I hate going there. Absolutely do not like it. Spent about 2 hours with David this evening in Psych. We watched television. We didn’t talk. If I asked him a question, I got a one syllable response. He said he is sleeping at night. I was told that he stole a couple of telephones and a staff persons cell phone. My thought was, at least he is consistent in showing his behaviors to others. People are less likely to think we are making things up. The staff there, when I started to talk into the intercom to pass security and get on the floor, said, “oh I recognize you…” Because I always say “the super secret code is: ” I don’t sleep very well, and the last couple of days have made things worse with a regular barrage of phone calls about David. Before I told David I loved him,