klmno
Active Member
There's good news and bad news, I think. The CA didn't do as expected, she saw me in the hallway before court and said all had agreed to lower charge to domestic assault & battery- a misdemeanor. That was good. Then she said that she thought the choice was either difficult child get commitment to state juvy or sent home with in-home services working with PO- )right back to where we were before but worse). I didn't say anything at first but later told her that I could not afford for difficult child to come home right away. I also mentioned that the problem with that proposed scenario is that if it doesn't work, difficult child is right back in here (court) and probably would be sent to state juvy and that he needed something in between, not an all-or-nothing situation.
Then in court, after the private attny withdrew his motion to substitute because both attny's showed up, (LOL!), the CA gave the charge and the defense attny plead guilty for difficult child.
I whispered to the GAL to ask if she rec'd my fax about Residential Treatment Center (RTC) approval, she said no, I gave her my copy of letter to read. Judge said she could not order Residential Treatment Center (RTC), it would be up to county and county had decided before to do in-home therapy. GAL told judge I'd gotten approval, I jumped in and said I had gotten medicaid appr'd for difficult child if funding was the issue. Judge said we now have parental placement into dss where parents don't give up rights. GAL said I had applied for that, I said yes but I withdrew it since this happened. Judge said parents needed to be aware that if they did that, the court did not oversee what Residential Treatment Center (RTC) was doing and could not hold them accountable for treatment and Residential Treatment Center (RTC) would discharge the kid as soon as medicaid funding ran out. (I was sitting there thinking that it still sounded better than any other option.)
Judge said that her only options were to commit difficult child to state juvy, give him 30 days in local detention, sentence him to program she wanted him to go to last year but he wasn't 14yo then (he is now), or release him back on probation. Then all attnys jumped up and started talking about psychiatrist's letter/report. GAL said she had spoken to psychiatrist several times and Residential Treatment Center (RTC) was recommended and since the county team met before and said in-home services, difficult child had been sent to place he is now and they now have this report, which somewhat changes things. And that psychiatrist said detention would be a detriment to difficult child. She said there were options, such as going back to county team with this new info or getting dss involved for placement.
The CA Then stood up and said she was new at this and didn't have the background on difficult child that others there did but after talking to all parties, including PO, she felt that since difficult child's problems seemed to stem from home, that a psychological should be done on the mother (me), especially since psychiatrist's report included one of difficult child's diagnosis's was child-parent relational problems. The GAL said that would probably be appropriate because the school said they had no problem with difficult child, that he was happy when he was there and the problems only seemed to exist when difficult child was at home (never mind that he only went to school when he was stable or hypomanic this whole school year). (After court I was told that the concern was if school was having no issue with him, then the question was why wasn't he getting to school and why was he always having to be tdo'd from home- like they have forgotten how he got to where he has been the past 3 weeks. I also mentioned after court that difficult child has cut himself extensively the past two weeks as can be seen by his arm so it isn't like once he's not at home, these problems suddenly go away. I didn't say those things defensively or angrily, just as a matter of observation.)
Anyway, the result is that difficult child is being sent back to where he is now and we will all go back to court next month so some things can be explored in the meantime. The things that are to happen over the next few weeks are 1) I get a psychological from our county mental health dept (I already went there to schedule the appointment and they mentioned the mst guy- I said no, that won't work because we had previous dealings with him. The lady is having someone else call me to schedule appointment. Shouldn't a psychiatric exam be done by someone you don't already know? The paper says psychiatric testing- are they actually going to give me a written test or just "interview" me? How bad is this that it was ordered?), 2) DSS is being called for potential placement. I would have no choice in where they place difficult child but the GAL says they would have to consider dr's reports (so I guess if whomever does my psychiatric exam determines that I have problems, dss would place difficult child with my bro which is my worst fear; if they determine we both have issues, I assume difficult child would be placed nearby if we can all work with the system to restore family life; if I am found to have no problem, then difficult child could be sent to detention for punishment- a potential problem though is that mental health dept can't ensure that my psychiatric exam will be complete before next month's hearing), 3) Another county team is to be scheduled and GAL will attend, per my request
Then in court, after the private attny withdrew his motion to substitute because both attny's showed up, (LOL!), the CA gave the charge and the defense attny plead guilty for difficult child.
I whispered to the GAL to ask if she rec'd my fax about Residential Treatment Center (RTC) approval, she said no, I gave her my copy of letter to read. Judge said she could not order Residential Treatment Center (RTC), it would be up to county and county had decided before to do in-home therapy. GAL told judge I'd gotten approval, I jumped in and said I had gotten medicaid appr'd for difficult child if funding was the issue. Judge said we now have parental placement into dss where parents don't give up rights. GAL said I had applied for that, I said yes but I withdrew it since this happened. Judge said parents needed to be aware that if they did that, the court did not oversee what Residential Treatment Center (RTC) was doing and could not hold them accountable for treatment and Residential Treatment Center (RTC) would discharge the kid as soon as medicaid funding ran out. (I was sitting there thinking that it still sounded better than any other option.)
Judge said that her only options were to commit difficult child to state juvy, give him 30 days in local detention, sentence him to program she wanted him to go to last year but he wasn't 14yo then (he is now), or release him back on probation. Then all attnys jumped up and started talking about psychiatrist's letter/report. GAL said she had spoken to psychiatrist several times and Residential Treatment Center (RTC) was recommended and since the county team met before and said in-home services, difficult child had been sent to place he is now and they now have this report, which somewhat changes things. And that psychiatrist said detention would be a detriment to difficult child. She said there were options, such as going back to county team with this new info or getting dss involved for placement.
The CA Then stood up and said she was new at this and didn't have the background on difficult child that others there did but after talking to all parties, including PO, she felt that since difficult child's problems seemed to stem from home, that a psychological should be done on the mother (me), especially since psychiatrist's report included one of difficult child's diagnosis's was child-parent relational problems. The GAL said that would probably be appropriate because the school said they had no problem with difficult child, that he was happy when he was there and the problems only seemed to exist when difficult child was at home (never mind that he only went to school when he was stable or hypomanic this whole school year). (After court I was told that the concern was if school was having no issue with him, then the question was why wasn't he getting to school and why was he always having to be tdo'd from home- like they have forgotten how he got to where he has been the past 3 weeks. I also mentioned after court that difficult child has cut himself extensively the past two weeks as can be seen by his arm so it isn't like once he's not at home, these problems suddenly go away. I didn't say those things defensively or angrily, just as a matter of observation.)
Anyway, the result is that difficult child is being sent back to where he is now and we will all go back to court next month so some things can be explored in the meantime. The things that are to happen over the next few weeks are 1) I get a psychological from our county mental health dept (I already went there to schedule the appointment and they mentioned the mst guy- I said no, that won't work because we had previous dealings with him. The lady is having someone else call me to schedule appointment. Shouldn't a psychiatric exam be done by someone you don't already know? The paper says psychiatric testing- are they actually going to give me a written test or just "interview" me? How bad is this that it was ordered?), 2) DSS is being called for potential placement. I would have no choice in where they place difficult child but the GAL says they would have to consider dr's reports (so I guess if whomever does my psychiatric exam determines that I have problems, dss would place difficult child with my bro which is my worst fear; if they determine we both have issues, I assume difficult child would be placed nearby if we can all work with the system to restore family life; if I am found to have no problem, then difficult child could be sent to detention for punishment- a potential problem though is that mental health dept can't ensure that my psychiatric exam will be complete before next month's hearing), 3) Another county team is to be scheduled and GAL will attend, per my request