I feel like our son, and by extension, the whole family, is being held hostage by the mental health care system.
Recently, he was accepted at a residential facility for treatment.
It was approved by insurance and Medicaid.
Then a company called Ascend Management got involved and denied coverage.
If I try to discipline my son for doing something wrong, he runs away.
If I try to talk to him about something he is doing he runs away.
If I try to ignore his behaviors he gets in my face and increases the behaviors.
We have done counseling. We do psychiatric care. We do community support.
Evidently none of that is enough. We are supposed to travel 100 miles a day to enroll him in camps at the university in the city. I can’t afford that.
So we are held hostage by a system of care that doesn’t care. Maybe what I need to do is drive to Tennessee, bring my son and let him spend a couple of days with the people in that company. The tagline on the company website says “Ensuring you receive the support and services you need.”
Don’t believe me? https://www.ascendami.com/ami/
The “system” of care is broken. Now is the time to fix it. In 4 very short years, he will be “an adult”. At which point, I have little doubt that he will end up in prison because of his behaviors. Prison is not the place to treat the mentally ill. We might as well reopen all of the institutions that were closed back in the 1980’s and house the mentally ill there.
A treatment facility is not the same as a prison. Don’t believe me? Call your nearest facility and ask for a tour. Then call a prison and ask for a tour. There is a marked difference.