I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
Everywhere has multi-month waiting lists.

Talked to an atty (apparently, one who signed/created the disability act in CT).

Now, I gotta write a letter "giving my consent" for the school to give difficult child an evaluation.

Nobdy will do anything without the school doing the evaluation, first.

School has 60 days from the letter.

PPT on 27th (Nov).

Have to create a behavior plan until the evaluation is done.

Go from there.

Maybe a new school.

Don't use DCF voluntary services as it's NOT free like I was told.

Don't enroll difficult child in any day programs unless I can pay out of pocket.

Wait...wait...wait....

Anyone know what a global...something...assessment is? It's on a scale from 1-100.


I....am....FRIED.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
UGH!

I'd be ready to rip out my hair.

Is there any way you can possibly find a parent advocate who could help you find services/ sort thru this stuff??

Reminds me of what I went thru with Travis til I hooked up with a case manager who (for once) knew her stuff. Then things started popping.

I'll be eternally grateful for her cuz I was totally lost without her. I kept getting the run around from everyone. But she talked to the same people and made stuff happen. (she had all the laws and policies memorized)

I'm so sorry you're having to go thru all this.

Hugs
 

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
<3 Thanks. :smile:

I do have an advocate, but I just met her last Tuesday.

She definitely needs an update on all that's happened. I hope she works on the weekend!

I did a bit more research on the GAF scale, by the way.

My son got a 45. According to Wikipedia this means:

"41-50 Serious symptoms OR any serious impairment in social, occupational, or school functioning."


DCF told me that score was grounds for going inpatient.

So what happened??? Ahhh! Cursed hospitals!!!
 

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
Geez! I'm sorry. Rechecked my info (I'm posting more on here than anyone else!). I guess that was the adult scale.

Ok, now...the CHILDREN'S scale says (drumroll, please):

"50-41 Moderate degree of interference in functioning in most social areas or severe impairment of functioning in one area, such as might result from, for example, suicidal preoccupations and ruminations, school refusal and other forms of anxiety, obsessive rituals, major conversion symptoms, frequent anxiety attacks, poor to inappropriate social skills, frequent episodes of aggressive or other antisocial behaviour with some preservation of meaningful social relationships."

Still....grounds for inpatient. Or maybe some immediate assistance?! Looks like over the years, they just stopped caring, eh?

Pssshhh...I mean...no kid can actually hurt himself (or others)waiting 2-3 months to see a doctor after writing "I want to die" on his arm and trying to shake his baby sister to death. I bet he'll be as patient as pie.

Oh, and did I mention the hospital advised me to call the mobile crisis unit if there were any other emergencies as opposed to going to the ER?

Oh, the catch, you ask? They usually take 2 hours to get to the situation. Awesome....just enough time to kill the cats, punch the baby, slam his head into the floor, watch some cartoons, burn the house down and run to the next town.

Wow...some help.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Phht on the hospital's advice. If there is a crisis, I'd haul him to the ER. His and family safety comes first. Let the Moblie crisis unit pick him up THERE.

I'm glad you have an advocate. I hope she's as good as the lady I had was. We don't have alot of servises, being so rural, but she found a heck of alot more than I did, and got the one's who had poo pooed me to sit up and pay attention.

Hugs
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
I'm very aware of the GAF (global assessment of functioning). The tweedles hover between 20 & 40 on any given day. kt has hit an all time high of 48 this past psychiatrist's visit.

Here, most decisions on services, admits to hospital, etc, for children are based on the GAF score.

However, it is a highly subjective scoring technique & with children can swing wildly during the day.

I'm here to tell you as one who has taken on the system (for the past 7 years) you are just beginning to discover - don't give up if you need it! And don't believe what you are told the first or even the second time around. Now is the time for YOU to be the research lead, the team facilitator, the coordinator of care - all in all a major pain in the behind, in other words Mom, for the professionals caring for/educating your difficult child.

It's not time to flip, lose your temper, or panic. Organize yourself, put together a parent report for everyone to see; continue to push SD & any other entity you might have out there for evaluations & such.

If your difficult child is a danger & isn't admitted, turn around the next day & have him transported to ER again. This isn't a game for you & it shouldn't be for the hospital staff.

Plus, most of our difficult children "honeymoon" the first days in the hospital - you can count on it. I believe hospital staff count on it due to the shortage of beds for children. If the child is calm & playing games he can be discharged.

This is where warrior mom comes into play. This is where you fight the discharge; have your requests for new evaluations (at least the ones provided at that hospital), medication issues, therapy. What is the discharge plan? Etc, etc, etc.

Good luck & take a deep breath.

 

smallworld

Moderator
I'm confused -- why won't anyone do an evaluation first before the school does? We've never had the school evaluate -- only private neuropsychologists to make sure we get an accurate diagnosis. I personally wouldn't trust school officials to get it right.
 

Janna

New Member
Ok, first, deep breaths. I'm lost.

What are you trying to do? Are you trying to get your son help in school, like into an Emotional Support or Learning Support placement? For that, yes, you need to request it in writing, and they do have up to that time frame to test. It's the law. They COULD be nice and test him before hand. Will they? I don't know. But they COULD.

Your son isn't under the care of a psychiatrist? With his diagnosis, he should be. I agree with SW, I wouldn't let a school psychologist THINK ABOUT diagnosing any of my children with anything, ever. This isn't a smack to them, but it's not their area of expertise. They need to stick to giving the Wischler and talking about feelings. If your son is under the care of a psychiatrist, you can go the route I did, and ask your psychiatrist to write a letter of referral to the school district for what you need. Our psychiatrist wrote a referral, suggesting an Emotional Support classroom was the better placement for Dylan, and in he went. BUT, it did take about 35 days total.

If you're having a problem in home and the hospital is telling you to call crisis, call them. Call them every single time you have an issue. Call the cops. Restrain him. Dylan is 11 years old and you bet your bottom that if he was freaking out like that and hurting himself, I would (and have, many, many times) throw my entire body on him and lay there until he was calm (and I've laid there 3 hours waiting.....*sigh*). I'd keep calling them, every day if necessary, until they were totally sick of me.

And if I were you, I'd grab a video camera from somewhere and tape what is going on. That's just an FYI on a personal level from me.

It stinks when you have to wait, but is the way it is. I know you want everything immediately, but unfortunately, there are so many challenging kids in the schools nowadays, I don't think the SD's can really keep up. One psychologist for 400 kids = problem.

J
 

ShakespeareMamaX

New Member
My son does have a psychiatrist, but he's worthless. I tried to tell the hospital that, in hopes that they could help me find a better one, but they said to continue with the one I had. The clinician gave me a name "off the record" and I called, but I had to leave a voicemail. :rolleyes:

I'm trying to get the school to see that it's not the right school for my difficult child. He can't go to any other schools until they test him, according to everywhere else in the world. The school says "oh, we'll test him" but then they say they're worried that they won't be able to get "true" results because of his behavior. What the heck is that supposed to mean? I mean...that's the reason for the testing! Has anyone ever had a problem in terms of this?

Also, the school seems more than willing to give me phone numbers and point me to outside places, but try to avoid having anything done at the actual school. Can we say /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/money.gifmoney/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/money.gif is blinding them from seeing that my child needs help?

I tried asking my difficult child's psychiatrist, a while ago, if he would do an evaluation, but he kept pointing me to other places to have it done.

Did I mention he's worthless? :thumbsdown:
 

smallworld

Moderator
Child psychiatrists don't do the kind of testing you need. Neuropsychologists do. Ask your pediatrician or the psychiatrist for a referral.

In terms of the school, write a letter requesting the evaluation and send it certified mail. Given the issues your difficult child is having, the school can't deny the testing.
 
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