I got a little info

[klmno]

I called state Department of Juvenile Justice and found a few things out- some good, some not so good. She said difficult child will not spend the max amount of time in (3 years) and his time starts counting from the day of the court, even though they haven't processed him at the state yet and have not determined his length of stay range yet. If I move away from this area, the parole officer is transferred to my registered residence.

The probation officer submits whatever she has to the state. If I have other stuff that is relevant, I can give it to the probation officer/courts to have it submitted in the package. The IEP re-evaluation has to continue- either by home sd or by state, but not put on hold. Once records are sent to state, they assign a parole officer right away- he/she works with probation officer (physically and figuratively) to decide what is needed for difficult child and family. The parole officer starts right away "working with" the parent to have the parent do what they thhink is needed before the difficult child gets out. The parole officer gets this "what is needed" info from the probation officer. If the probation has ever recommended anything, that gets relayed to parole officer and becomes a requirement. (oh boy).

The difficult child and the parent have to do whatever is determined by the facility difficult child is in and the parole officer prior to allowing difficult child to be released and return home. Working on these things starts right away, even if the difficult child gets a sentence of a year or longer and continues for his entire length of stay.

Family therapy might be involved while the difficult child is incarcerated but if it is, it's only if the parent lives locally and it is done during visitation hours. Mental health programs: all the difficult child's get the same program, unless there is an extreme circumstance requiring a specialized treatment, then the kid is sent elsewhere (ie- a sexual offender or substance abuser). They are a correctional facility- not a mental health service provider. Any additional treatment needed will become a requirement to be provided upon the kid's release.

Also, I happened to be reading something on the way funding works around here. It is required in Virginia that if a service is needed for a kid in the Department of Juvenile Justice system already, the county funding is NOT allowed to be accessed. It HAS to be funded through crime prevention money first. Ok- but here's the trap- crime prevention money can ONLY be spent on crime prevention services. So, difficult child was SOL. He needed psychiatric care- there was no way to access other county agency help or funding for it and crime prevention money only covers care as it pertains to crime prevention (ie- behavior mod therapy or substance abuse or something like that). Being that they will never let difficult child out of the Department of Juvenile Justice system, one way or another, I guess it's a SOL situation- he'll never get anything more, mental health wise.

My advice to others: do all you can to keep your difficult child out of the Department of Juvenile Justice system or if they are already in the system, do whatever you can to get them out ASAP- at least if you live in VA and your kid has an Axis 1 diagnosis.

So, for those of you in the process of moving, can you send me your empty boxes when you are finished with them?

 

[totoro]

I just don't understand?
That sounds ridiculous. I have no idea what the laws,rules or regulations are here?
How can a State not have to help a child? I just don't get it.
Is he just supposed to sit and literally go crazy in the States care?

 

[klmno]

They don't believe in mental illness here in the Department of Juvenile Justice system, evidently. I was looking online about funding and approved providers and stuff. In Department of Juvenile Justice, they list Learning Disability (LD), behavior problems, MR, sexual offenses, substance abuse, etc- but NO mental illness. Therefore, there is NO treatment focusing on mental illness such as mood disorders- it is considered a behavior problem. Now, I can't tell you for sure where the line is with difficult child between what he's able to control or isn't and at this point, I can't say for sure that being in Department of Juvenile Justice isn't a good thing- but I can say that I'm positive he has a mood disorder and psychiatrists and tdocs believe he needs treatment for it. The state corrections facility will let him see a psychiatrist the minimal amount- maybe a few mins a month- that it takes to legally write a rx.

They talk about it being no big deal because they have a lot of kids in the state Department of Juvenile Justice system that have mental illness, and they tell me not to worry about it. My view of it is that they have so many in there because they don't acknowledge or treat it before they get in there or while they are there. It isn't a balanced approach, like a psychiatric Residential Treatment Center (RTC), where the kid gets behavior mod, plus psychiatrist care, plus family therapy. The people who work for and in the system believe in it- never mind the recidivism rates. And I can't get a single ONE of them to see anything outside of that system as a viable option. They'll just put that on my shoulders to provide when difficult child gets out and then say it's my problem if I can't do that plus work enough hours to support us on top of it. At least this is the way things were before.

Oh- in spite of the gal's insistence that all difficult child's problems were a result of me "refusing to deal with my issues", she did acknowledge that I love my son and had made a lot of effort to seek help to deal with his issues. The judge committed him though because she said at this point, she had to think about protecting the community from him. So, difficult child's needs for psychiatric care was not the judge's priority at that point. I will NEVER understand why GAL did not advocate for psychiatric Residential Treatment Center (RTC) when I had everything in hand and the judge could have put something in an order to make sure I didn't pull difficult child from it early. Even if she lost, the GAL could have advocated for it. I guess that's re-hashing and I'll get chastised again. LOL! But in my mind, people let their grievances for me cloud their judgement about what is in difficult child's best interest. I seriously can't see that opinion changing.

 

[WSM]

I'm just so sorry. It seems you've been in a nightmare so long.

It's often so clear what these kids need--but no one is willing to provide it and parents can't afford to do it themselves. It's always--there's no funding, there's no funding.

And yet there's funding for viagra for medicare recipients, and there's funding for fertility treatments for welfare moms. And don't forget the millions that are spent in pork and government waste.

Oh by the way, medicare fraud is 3 TRILLION a year. Why, because the billing system is based on the honor system (my field of work). (They don't even track fraud in Canada).

It makes me steamed. It really does.

I wish I could send good things your way. You really deserve them.

Can I ask, where is your son's father? Or is that too personal?