I have a 14 year old daughter who we are trying desperately to get some help for before she winds up dead. She has schizoaffective disorder, seizures, frontal and temporal lobe insufficiency, mild autism and mild mental retardation. She has been in the local psychiatric hospital 13 or 14 times, as well as 2 hospitals in Oklahoma and 2 different residential treatment centers in Texas. Short-term hospitalizations do not really benefit her and she continues to deteriorate. She can become very violent when upset, as well as self-abusive and suicidal. She has been seen by every physician in our area and we now drive 4 1/2 hours monthly for her to see a doctor in Oklahoma. Her physician has recommended a long-term state hospital placement, in order to hopefully get her medications regulated. Because he is in OK, he cannot admit to a Texas state facility. We tried for several weeks to get the local MHMR to make a referral to the State hospital. They refuse, stating that she needs to be placed in a group home for the mentally retarded. We visited the closest home that would take her and we were horrified! It is a nursing home with no other residents under age 25. They are all severely impaired. Most can't walk or talk. On top of that, it is not a locked facility and they do not have the intensive psychiatric care that my daughter needs. It would NOT be an appropriate place for her. The local MHMR continues to refuse to refer to the State hospital and aside from a court order, that is the only way to get her there. In the last 2 weeks, she has ran down a interstate, with cars swerving and honking. She has tried to wreck our car by grabbing the steering wheel while I was driving. She has tied a scarf tightly around her neck until she became blue and almost passed out. She has ran off several times and we have had to call the police. She has refused to go to school several times and it has taken 3 adults to get her out of the car. She has torn the doors off our built-in double oven in the kitchen (completely off the hinges!) Her physician told us to have her involuntarily admitted to the local hospital, so she would have to go before a judge for a "show cause" hearing, which we did. The hearing was held yesterday. We were not allowed in the room or allowed to speak to the judge. We provided 2 letters from her physician in OK stating that she needed to go to the state hospital, yet they still refused to listen and instead, discharged her to home! The case manager at the hospital stated that the reason they did not send her to the state hospital is that she has proven neurological damage and they don't feel like the state hospital is an appropriate place for her. Ok, I get that, but what are we supposed to do with her? If the state facilities are not appropriate, can they not pay for her to go somewhere that is?? If she needs a neuropsychologist unit, and there is not a state facility with one, then why can't they assist us in getting her to one?? We have her on private insurance AND Texas Medicaid, yet no one wants to help us! Is it going to take her killing herself or someone else for people to listen?? She is very dangerous. Yes, it is neurological, but people with brain tumors kill people! Doesn't mean they are any less dangerous if it is neurological! What is it going to take. We are desperate, scared and frustrated and don't know where to turn!