OK, Marg here. As far as Residential Treatment Center (RTC) goes, I don't think we have this in Australia, although until recently I didn't think we had neuropsychs either, and I've since found out we do. So in the area ofmental health, I'm almost as much in the dark. My eldest (easy child) is a health care worker (occupational therapist in the hospital environment) and has access to SOME information about services, but is also learning as she goes in this regard.
From my actual experience - my sister's adopted son went off the rails like this, kept running away and went on the streets on drugs. She did everything she could, although with hindsight she enabled him for far too long even when she thought she wasn't. But by then there were children involved and she was desperately trying to improve her grandchildren's environment, except everything she gave them, her son and his girl would hock it for drugs and neglect the kids.
However - end result is, the girl got her act together quite quickly when she realised that she would lose her kids. She threw him out (because he was the main one hocking stuff) and clung to my sister for support and guidance. Meanwhile my sister's son ended up in the prison system over the next ten years, in and out. Over those years he became a "serial father" and she has a string of grandchildren, some of whom she doesn't know much about. However, her son is now clean, gonig straight and trying to make something out of what is left of his capability after frying his brain. He always had problems (with hindsight, much more than the severe ADHD he was reluctantly diagosed with back in the 70s). He turned up at his mother's second wedding (they had talked on the phone a couple of days before, first contact in years) and we all talked to him, were impressed with how he is really making an effort now. He's not around much but when he is in contact, things seem to be ticking along. He had a rough time of it but is now doing what he can, and his kids are his reason for trying to go straight.
It's the best I can do for now in terms of reassurance because I really don't have enough expertise here. However, if there is any chancwe you can get your daughter in to see a psychiatrist (rather than a psychologist) I think you might have more doors open for you. Do you have a Health Care Plan on her? It's done through your GP and also opens up services for her, bulk-billed where possible. A psychiatrist's diagnosis would carry a lot more weight and perhaps have more chance at finding out what is really going on. From my experience, a psychologist alone was not able to make a confirmed diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) in our kids, we needed others on the team to have their input as well. Add to this the inexactness of medical science, and you get a vital need to always challenge the diagnosis to keep revisiting it (where possible) to see if perhaps something important has been missed. I mean, a kid can go off the rails like this if they suffered abuse early on, for example. And people don't always recognise that abuse can take many forms and come from many different places. My easy child was sexually abused in the school playground, when she was 5. The perpetrator was 7 years old and himself a victim of sexual abuse, we worked out later (from his words and actions) but she was too terrified to let us know for several years. As far as we couldwork outm there were only a couple of isolated incidents andwe dealt with it as soon as we found out, but there wasn't a lotwe could do. But if abuse is worse, or goes on for longer, or... many other possibilities, who knows what it could do?
Anyway, that was just an example.
If you are in Sydney (as I am) I may be able to track down some other possibilities for you, but chances are you have probably already developed your own contact network and could probably teach ME a thing or two! Besides, Sydney is a big place and if you're in a different neck of the woods then my help would be limited.
As for the legal stuff and whether we are responsible for what our under-age kids do - I would need to check this out, the local cop shop should be able to tell you if you ask, but I think if your kid is a runaway and you can't do anything about it, you don't get held responsible. I know my sister wasn't held responsible for her son's break-and-enters.
A thought - do you have extended family? Make sure they are safe too, and have put locks on their windows and doors. My nephew broke into my parents' home and stole their stash of cold cash (in the freezer - it's amazing how many people think, "No thief would ever think of looking there!")
Sometimes you get a kid who is like this, despite all efforts to prevent it. If you can get to the bottom of it and find out what has been going on to cause it (assuming there IS a cause) then maybe it is something you can work on. But if you're just shooting in the dark, you end up lurching from crisis to crisis and it's no wonder you get fed up with it all and just want to walk away from the problem. And if she won't cooperate - then the best you can do is keep yourself and your family as safe as possible. For now. And hope she gets herself sorted, if shewill no longer comply with what you want her to do.
Have you tried some alternative contacts? Maybe try to get in touch with (Father) Chris O'Reilly? (Youth Off the Streets). Pick his brains if you can, or someone else's who's been there done that. I have a friend in the village who has contacts with Chris O'Reilly, but I don't know if it would be needed or if it would help.
I've got a busy couple of days, I won't be around much but I'll keep tabs on this thread. Also my husband will be doing the same, he lurks on all my posts. He's also a member of this site (very handy sometimes!)
Marg