need advice on youth-at-risk

[Mom2oddson]

See previous post, Need serious help here

This is the first time that I am dealing with the youth-at-risk situation and i would like to know what to expect.

Thanks

 

[DammitJanet]

I dont know if your Youth at Risk is anything like what ours was but I can give you a summary of what ours was like.

Basically what Youth at Risk here was a catch all program to build around the kids who had fallen through the cracks of mental health programs that were already set up. Some kids do perfectly fine with a psychiatrist for medication management and a therapist once or twice a month. Youth at Risk kids are the kids who dont. They are the kids who fail in school and no one knows why, they are the kids keep getting in trouble with the law from a young age, these are the kids who need a special program built around their specific needs and not just a cookie cutter program.

They gave my son an aide that went to school with him and worked with him in the community. He had access to group homes when we felt he needed them. He had a case manager, a psychiatrist, a therapist who all worked with him and for him.

 

[busywend]

I do not know much about what will happen. I wish I could help.

I do know that whatever help you do get, be sure to understand the plan. In other words, ask a million 'what if' questions. They need to provide you with the blue print for parenting your difficult child. She needs help, but you need it, too. Having the weight of a child at risk is hard enough. Trying to figure out how to respond and react in the heat of the moment would be impossible.

HUGS!