Ladies, I appreciate your thoughtss and input but this isn't a mental health treatment team. In this state juvenile system, the attny's, PO and so forth are the ones seen as knowing what's in a child's best interest- not in addition to the parent but instead of the parent. They look at it like "if the parent knew what was best, the child wouldn't be in this system", which is why all our GAL's are required to be attnys- not parents, or mature people with experience working with kids- just attnys who take about an 8 hour course. The history and so forth have been submitted to the courts but not the long length (which I can assure you they don't want) but the shorter synopsis. I can't make these people read it. More info was sent to Department of Juvenile Justice and they did look closer at it but apparently decided difficult child had no serious diagnosis- he does need some things (like coping skills, for one) but I still think his besst chance was the psychiatric Residential Treatment Center (RTC). In any case, it doesn't matter according to what PO is telling me. difficult child is at the point where the courts people do not want to put more money into services for him (like this jurisdiction spent so much on him before *choke*) and will send him straight back to Department of Juvenile Justice (which comes out of state funding, not this jurisdiction's), and apparently this is typical once a kid has been committed to Department of Juvenile Justice already. IOW, they are warehousing them.
As far as being involved in difficult child's care and placement, all I can do is express my opinion to PO, which I have all along, but PO does what he wants and places orders. The judge then looks at that and of course, can over-ride or change or add to PO's orders. But it is NOT a situation where the parent is considered a person on the team of decision makers, like an IEP team. It's not considered family court- we don't have that here. If I went into a courtroom and said I am afraid of difficult child, he would probably never come back home. He would go to Department of Juvenile Justice but at some point, Department of Juvenile Justice can no longer keep him incarcerated and have to release him back to this jurisdiction- they would decide in there somewhere whether or not difficult child would return home or go to dss and go to my bro. We have broached this line already, as far as me letting people know about difficult child becoming aggressive and me not wanting to handle things in a way that might instigate that because I am afraid of difficult child's aggression and because I really don't want to contribute to digging him in any deeper. Also, I do think some over there feel like I might be intentionally "triggering" difficult child or causing all this.
Anyway, from what I have been told, there are only two options left for difficult child at this point, go back to Department of Juvenile Justice now (for 3 mos) or get one more chance and come back home after this few weeks and things are exactly the way they were with the exception of seeing a therapist (and possibly a psychiatrist) ordered at our mental health dept. Also, keep in mind that in addition to the bad experience already gone thru there- that wasn't under court order then, now that it would be, a parent has NO choice or say so with difficult child's mental health treatment, medications, or anything. This would apply to myself to if they order it for me. So if the incompetent therapist decides that he doesn't care to look thru difficult child's files from other profs who were private tdocs/psychiatrists, he could order difficult child right back on prozac. If difficult child reacts to that and sets another brush fire, too bad for difficult child- he had "his last chance" and goes to adult court (probably) and back to Department of Juvenile Justice for a long period of time. I know that sounds absurd, but I swear to you, that is the way it is. There is no way I'd let these people get a hold of my mental health. I feel sure they will present this in court now like I'm refusing to provide care (mental health treatment) for difficult child and this judge probably will be believe that. However, all of them in the serviices portion (PO, attny's, etc) know that I have provided mental health for difficult child for the 3 years prior to his incarceration, on my money not theirs, and he came out of Department of Juvenile Justice without a recommendation for this. If it's true that difficult child was using that avenue to manipulate, and given that now he's on the verge of being deeply involved in drugs and then that leading to dealing, I am in agreement that he should not be given rx's or another excuse or route to manipulate- assuming of course that it is not medically (mentally) neccssary due to a diagnosis. If I had been the one to push for mental health treatment this time, they would have gone to court and pursued a route that made it look like the problem is me for not facing up to difficult child's wrongdoings and giving him the MI excuse. (been there done that, too) Why?? B/s this really isn't about what is in difficult child's best interest to them, it is about legal strategy in the court room. It's a very dysfunctional, enabling system, in my book.
Also, for whatever reason- funding, being fed up with difficult child, or dislike of me- I KNOW they haven't been honest about what's available and the previous PO definitely wasn't. Part of it is a power thing, too. The PO before said she would not agree to Residential Treatment Center (RTC) because if she had thought difficult child needed it, she would have already ordered it so it didn't matter to her what someone from a psychiatric hospital said. That statement says a LOT to me. The judges do care, in my humble opinion, but it's very difficult to get this sort of truth and facts in front of them- the PO of course presented things a lot differently and didn't show up in court but submitted a written letter to the juidge- the was to cover her rear no doubt. These people lie, manipulate and everything else. When I was trying to get the job in HI and looking into being sure that difficult child could go with me and they would all coordinate dates, the PO hung that up and told me he couldn't do that because of paperwork processes. The people at Department of Juvenile Justice told me then that the PO was not being entirely honest with me. If I thought these mental health people would/could make a mental health assessment that was accurate and thorough and then stand by recommendations all the way into a court room, things would be a lot different.
However, I have already been there done that where the PO can and will over-ride what the mental health profs say and recommend. That is why I told PO right before court that I had reached my last straw with that route- I told him in detail what happened before and I (stupidly) thought he acted like he understood and didn't blame me. But, we got into court and the judge fllipped thru difficult child's file and then asked PO if he'd put any services into place for difficult child and what's going on with his mental health treatment. Instead of PO being clear that difficult child's diagnosis had been removed and no mental health treatment had been required from Department of Juvenile Justice, he said Department of Juvenile Justice had taken difficult child off medications because they didn't think he as BiPolar (BP) and he'd done fine there without them and didn't come out with a mental health plan so he hadn't put a package together YET and as far as what else might have gone on with difficult child's mental health, "you'll have to ask the mother". WTH does that mean? It made it look like I either was witholding info from PO or I had somehow gotten Department of Juvenile Justice to change difficult child's diagnosis- which Department of Juvenile Justice would NEVER listen to a parent that much. Again though, that was to cover PO's rear for not having some more services in place for difficult child and because the PO doesn't really understand enough about the mental health treatment. I think the judges understand it pretty well when they have the accurate info. But the people carrying out their orders think it's bogus or something that can just supplement their behavior mod plans or that it is supposed to be telling a therapist to fix a kid or a parent and that can automatically happen. At court for difficult child's knife-pulling, thee new prosecuting attny put me on the stand and ask if I had taken difficult child to a p[rivate therapist- yes, continuously. She asked then "why did that therapy stop". That therapy did not stop. She said "well it must have or this wouldn't have happened". I said, no Mam, it did not stop, my son had been released from psychiatric hospital about one week earlier, had seen his therapist a couple of days after, and I had to cancel appts that were made for the next few days with his therapist and psychiatrist. And they sat there and looked all befuddled like "how can that happen- the kid just must be completely noncompliant then or the parent just isn't following what psychiatrist and therapist suggest". That's their way of thinking, so there's no way they would support a psychiatric Residential Treatment Center (RTC).