We have a meeting scheduled next week to determine a "Total Service Plan" for difficult child.
Having been "burned" in the past by not knowing what to say/do/expect/ask for - I am VERY nervous. I have never been through a TSP meeting before. I have no idea what to expect.
Our caseworker is pretty new to the job, too. When we first met her, she described how her last two cases were helped by getting the child a mentor. The mentor would take the child out into the community for some one-on-one time, get an ice cream...something like that - and give the child a chance to develop a positive relationship with an adult role model and discuss issues that were going on at home and at school.
I think it's gonna take a lot more than a weekly trip for ice cream to solve our issues with difficult child...
The caseworker already has a MOUNTAIN of information (from me) going back several years in her file, as do the therapist and psychiatrist. This is difficult child's first year in this school - so they haven't seen a lot. All they know is that teachers are complaining that difficult child is not doing homework....thus earning Cs andDs instead of As and Bs.
My worry is that all these folks have so much information in front of them - they are going to lose sight of the "big picture"....and/or focus on the stuff that is easy to fix.
I'm worried that they will focus on the weekly ice cream and tutoring after school because it is simple, easy and inexpensive (and has nice, easily attainable goals) - as opposed to considering an expensive Residential Treatment Center (RTC) placement for the scarier issues and less attainable goals.
How should I prepare?
Should I go in with a goal in mind? Like "SAFETY for difficult child and the family".
Or is my role just to listen to the experts and see what they recommend?
How do these meetings typically work?
Thank you for any insight...
Having been "burned" in the past by not knowing what to say/do/expect/ask for - I am VERY nervous. I have never been through a TSP meeting before. I have no idea what to expect.
Our caseworker is pretty new to the job, too. When we first met her, she described how her last two cases were helped by getting the child a mentor. The mentor would take the child out into the community for some one-on-one time, get an ice cream...something like that - and give the child a chance to develop a positive relationship with an adult role model and discuss issues that were going on at home and at school.
I think it's gonna take a lot more than a weekly trip for ice cream to solve our issues with difficult child...
The caseworker already has a MOUNTAIN of information (from me) going back several years in her file, as do the therapist and psychiatrist. This is difficult child's first year in this school - so they haven't seen a lot. All they know is that teachers are complaining that difficult child is not doing homework....thus earning Cs andDs instead of As and Bs.
My worry is that all these folks have so much information in front of them - they are going to lose sight of the "big picture"....and/or focus on the stuff that is easy to fix.
I'm worried that they will focus on the weekly ice cream and tutoring after school because it is simple, easy and inexpensive (and has nice, easily attainable goals) - as opposed to considering an expensive Residential Treatment Center (RTC) placement for the scarier issues and less attainable goals.
How should I prepare?
Should I go in with a goal in mind? Like "SAFETY for difficult child and the family".
Or is my role just to listen to the experts and see what they recommend?
How do these meetings typically work?
Thank you for any insight...