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Signs of abuse in school/Residential Treatment Center (RTC)/group home
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<blockquote data-quote="susiestar" data-source="post: 332306" data-attributes="member: 1233"><p>Most of you remember that Wiz was in a psychiatric hospital for 4 months. It basically was an Residential Treatment Center (RTC).</p><p></p><p>Communication was limited to people that we specified unless those people did or said things that undermined treatment. They came to us the second week and asked that we stop communication with my parents. My mom and dad had spoken with Wiz about taking him out of there by force or trickery and a staff member heard it. They actually had a "fire drill" to separate them without making a scene. They wanted to speak with us before they said anything to Wiz or my parents. </p><p></p><p>By week 4 they realized my parents would not join therapy, no matter what they said. They had a letter from my mother contradicting most parts of his history and placing ALL blame on us for his behavior. It was blamed on us moving away from them when Wiz was almost 3. </p><p></p><p>They were not legally allowed to keep ANY mail that arrived by the USPS from him. This was difficult because several of their cards had messages that either undermined treatment by encouraging him to not cooperate or else they made him hysterical by talking about all the stuff we were doing with the other kids that he didn't get to do. Almost all of the things my mother mentioned were false. They were things we had not even considered doing. husband was in his last semester of grad school and I was spending 3 days a week in the city the hospital was in. There was no TIME to do these things.</p><p></p><p>It was a locked facility because many of the children were runners. Wiz did not want to run because he didn't know anyone anywhere near there. Thank Heavens!</p><p></p><p>The nurse and therapist spoke with me about medications. The doctor was ONLY available one day a week at around 7 am. This was when the treatment team met and parents were NOT encouraged to attend, were actively discouraged in fact - esp if we wanted to speak with the doctor. I was there for 13 out of 18 treatment team meetings. More than any parent in the history of the facility, sadly. Once the doctor stopped changing the meeting time to exclude me we got along well. He got the point that I would insist that he speak to me at the end if he pushed things through before I got there, so he settled down. He HATED my persistence, LOL. He LOVED my muffin tops though.<img src="/community/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/tongue.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":tongue:" title="tongue :tongue:" data-shortname=":tongue:" /></p><p></p><p>Wiz was observed though most aspects of bathing and dressing. He refused to bathe or shower. Would go in and run water and not get in, or get in and not use soap. Or only soap a bit of himself. All sorts of angles on bathing avoidance. They had a male orderly with extensive training stand in the outer area with the bathroom door open to make sure he got in and soaped. The man dispensed the soap and shampoo. If Wiz had a fit, kicked him, hit him, etc... then he got to get out, dry off, get dressed and start the procedure all over again. He was never touched or hit or hurt or humiliated. Just forced to do it over and over again until he decided that it was easier to do it right the first time. Took 6 weeks of daily work cause he is a stubborn fool sometimes.</p><p></p><p>They went over this, showed us teh man's work history and background check before they started this.</p><p></p><p>We were limited in the times/days we could visit and/or call to speak to him. Also in what he could have. We donated a lot of stuff to the ward. My dad had a bunch of walkmans (cassette players) that worked. He had gotten them to use at school. The hospital's cassette players were all broken but they had a lot of meditation cassettes. We took those and a huge thing of batteries and cheap earphones, along with a couple of boxes of books we had cleaned out and some games we were done with. (My kids have NEVER had less than several hundred books at a time that were on their reading level. Just one more way my parents set up unrealistic expectations.)</p><p></p><p>By doing this I got a lot more cooperation and access to the docs. The nurses would not shield the psychiatrist from me after I did that and brought them some snacks. And they saw we respected the rules, at least husband and I did. My parents never stopped bringing in things that were not OK. Esp my mom.</p><p></p><p>The list of things to watch for may be a good general guideline, but the motives behind the people who made the list should be examined. If they are anti-Residential Treatment Center (RTC) then it may be that some of the items are beneficial or needed to run the facility properly and provide a therapeutic environment. Each family has to evaluate it for themselves.</p><p></p><p>Some of the kids at Wiz' facility were left in the calm room (truly a room with padded walls and ceiling and floor, with low lights, soothing colors and they could pipe in soothing music) "until they calmed down". Two of the patients were regularly in there for hours. Anyone walking by could hear them ranting and screaming awful things. You had to walk right past it to hear though. I never knew who, but the rules were explained that if you went in you were there until you were calm for 5 minutes in a row. After 10 minutes they would give you a prn medication if one was ordered in your chart. After 30 minutes they called the doctor on call to have one ordered.</p><p></p><p>I do hope the list and our perspective on it and experiences will help you decide what you will do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="susiestar, post: 332306, member: 1233"] Most of you remember that Wiz was in a psychiatric hospital for 4 months. It basically was an Residential Treatment Center (RTC). Communication was limited to people that we specified unless those people did or said things that undermined treatment. They came to us the second week and asked that we stop communication with my parents. My mom and dad had spoken with Wiz about taking him out of there by force or trickery and a staff member heard it. They actually had a "fire drill" to separate them without making a scene. They wanted to speak with us before they said anything to Wiz or my parents. By week 4 they realized my parents would not join therapy, no matter what they said. They had a letter from my mother contradicting most parts of his history and placing ALL blame on us for his behavior. It was blamed on us moving away from them when Wiz was almost 3. They were not legally allowed to keep ANY mail that arrived by the USPS from him. This was difficult because several of their cards had messages that either undermined treatment by encouraging him to not cooperate or else they made him hysterical by talking about all the stuff we were doing with the other kids that he didn't get to do. Almost all of the things my mother mentioned were false. They were things we had not even considered doing. husband was in his last semester of grad school and I was spending 3 days a week in the city the hospital was in. There was no TIME to do these things. It was a locked facility because many of the children were runners. Wiz did not want to run because he didn't know anyone anywhere near there. Thank Heavens! The nurse and therapist spoke with me about medications. The doctor was ONLY available one day a week at around 7 am. This was when the treatment team met and parents were NOT encouraged to attend, were actively discouraged in fact - esp if we wanted to speak with the doctor. I was there for 13 out of 18 treatment team meetings. More than any parent in the history of the facility, sadly. Once the doctor stopped changing the meeting time to exclude me we got along well. He got the point that I would insist that he speak to me at the end if he pushed things through before I got there, so he settled down. He HATED my persistence, LOL. He LOVED my muffin tops though.:raspberry-tounge: Wiz was observed though most aspects of bathing and dressing. He refused to bathe or shower. Would go in and run water and not get in, or get in and not use soap. Or only soap a bit of himself. All sorts of angles on bathing avoidance. They had a male orderly with extensive training stand in the outer area with the bathroom door open to make sure he got in and soaped. The man dispensed the soap and shampoo. If Wiz had a fit, kicked him, hit him, etc... then he got to get out, dry off, get dressed and start the procedure all over again. He was never touched or hit or hurt or humiliated. Just forced to do it over and over again until he decided that it was easier to do it right the first time. Took 6 weeks of daily work cause he is a stubborn fool sometimes. They went over this, showed us teh man's work history and background check before they started this. We were limited in the times/days we could visit and/or call to speak to him. Also in what he could have. We donated a lot of stuff to the ward. My dad had a bunch of walkmans (cassette players) that worked. He had gotten them to use at school. The hospital's cassette players were all broken but they had a lot of meditation cassettes. We took those and a huge thing of batteries and cheap earphones, along with a couple of boxes of books we had cleaned out and some games we were done with. (My kids have NEVER had less than several hundred books at a time that were on their reading level. Just one more way my parents set up unrealistic expectations.) By doing this I got a lot more cooperation and access to the docs. The nurses would not shield the psychiatrist from me after I did that and brought them some snacks. And they saw we respected the rules, at least husband and I did. My parents never stopped bringing in things that were not OK. Esp my mom. The list of things to watch for may be a good general guideline, but the motives behind the people who made the list should be examined. If they are anti-Residential Treatment Center (RTC) then it may be that some of the items are beneficial or needed to run the facility properly and provide a therapeutic environment. Each family has to evaluate it for themselves. Some of the kids at Wiz' facility were left in the calm room (truly a room with padded walls and ceiling and floor, with low lights, soothing colors and they could pipe in soothing music) "until they calmed down". Two of the patients were regularly in there for hours. Anyone walking by could hear them ranting and screaming awful things. You had to walk right past it to hear though. I never knew who, but the rules were explained that if you went in you were there until you were calm for 5 minutes in a row. After 10 minutes they would give you a prn medication if one was ordered in your chart. After 30 minutes they called the doctor on call to have one ordered. I do hope the list and our perspective on it and experiences will help you decide what you will do. [/QUOTE]
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