OK, I'm going to get this vent out now since you twisted my arm. LOL (JK)
Yesterday I went to difficult child's mental health treatment plan that PO and super "gave me permission to go to" but said it wasn't necessary to attend. Now over the weekend , as I was reviewing regs and policies to prepare my letters, I found that both the juvenile and parent are SUPPOSED to be there. Also, I found that it's policy now for POs to get the recommendations in from Department of Juvenile Justice 90 days prior to release (PO had that meeting 45 days prior to release) and then 30 days prior to release this treatment plan mtg is supposed to be held, funding for any required service lined up, and services put in place. Yesterday was 21 days prior to release and this was just the treatment plan mtg. difficult child was not conferenced in and I was led to believe I didn't even need to be there, however I did go. So already, those policies and regs were not met.
Also there- 2 other POs for some strange reason, a person from state behavioral health and someone from sd. What I noticed is that they get these people together and have parents come every 15 mins or so to slam out these treatment plan mtgs all in one day. Whatever- it wasn't a by-the -book county mtg for funding services so I have no idea what the point of having sd and behavioral health there is.
Anyway, PO passed out a form- it said difficult child's name and reason for commitment and expected release date. In the section for "required services", it said "group home and re-entry service" This is one of my beefs with him- that is NOT definning services. That is listing placement- reentry services can be anything.
He said difficult child would get anger management and substance abuse counseling- well, that's what he's getting in Department of Juvenile Justice and that's what this GH's standard is. I waited my turn then modestly asked about a MH therapist (licensed). PO told me we'd talk about it later. I asked why we needed to wait since this is the MH treatment plan mtg. No answer. SD rep looked like she wanted an answer, too. I brought up that difficult child was in counseling with a psychiatric prior to first commitment and a licensed therapist had been provided to him throughout both commitments and PO had heard that therapist state that at last mtg and recommend that it be continued. One of the other POs told difficult child's PO to write that down- PO said he'd write down that difficult child needed a therapist. I said "a LICENSED MH therapist". He said ok but can I pay for it0- NO I cannot. It's his responsibility since he wasn't releasing difficult child from Department of Juvenile Justice custody and returning him to me. He looked befuddled. I said maybe difficult child can get on medicaid since it's an out-of-home placement. Behavioral rep said usually county funds cover it- I said that's what I thought.
Then sd rep said we needed an enrollment hearing for difficult child to return to school after his release. I said yes, I was aware and difficult child is on an IEP so we'd need that mtg in conjunction with it. She said, Yeah that's right, she'd be contacting me soon if that's ok, I said sure. PO looked befuddled- I guess that blew his idea that he could take over sd and IEP. LOL!
Then , this morning I see newspaper article about this state Department of Juvenile Justice- I posted it in a thread in the WC but no one responded so it's probably on the second page of this forum by now. That get me steamed. LOL! (The article- it just hurt my feelings that no one read it.
) Anyway, then a few mins ago, the ombudsman from central Department of Juvenile Justice office called me to followup from my call to her last week. She said "I understand you all had a mtg yesterday"- that tells me she has been in touch with PO. She asked if I feel better now. I said Uhmmm, no, why would I? She said she'd "looked into it" and thought PO's plan was a sstep-down- now let me say that NO ONE has called this a step-down program except PO. She said she thought it was a wonderful thing. I said I was really in no frame of mind to listen to someone defend this PO. She said they just wanted to make sure difficult child didn't re-offend when he finally was released back into the community. I said, well, that's not much different then saying you'll just keep him locked up because you're so concerned he'll re-offend if you unlock the door but you aren't allowed to keep him locked up for that reason. Re-entry is supposed to be there to help transition the kid, not keep him entangled because you're looking for a reason to prevent release. She said well, they don't look at it that way. I said I did, given that the decision was made without them even looking at difficult child's file and they admitted that to me. So, I told her since there is no policy or procedure for filing a grievance, I had already written my letters to file a formal complaint against Department of Juvenile Justice because as far as I am concerned, they have gotten completely out of control. She got quiet for a VERY long time. Finally, I asked if she was still there and if there was anything else we needed to discuss and got off the phone.
PO would have ordered tons of stuff if difficult child was coming straight home- yesterday he was only going to order what the GH typically requires and offers at the GH. I didn't raise a stink at that mtg but got the objectives met calmly. I guess because i didn't raise a stink, PO told ombudsman everything was fine now. So is an ombudsman just there to smooth things over?
And do you think there's any chance in hades that difficult child is going to have a therapist and transportation to/from appts with therapist lined up within the next 3 weeks? HAHA
PO acts like he doesn't know what to do- it's up to me. NOPE- when it's a difficult child coming from home to GH, the parents maintain responsibility; when it's a kid committed to Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Juvenile Justice maintains responsibility. It's in the regs. I tend to think PO and his super both are used to serving as probation officers but are clueless when it comes to serving as parole officers.