Been trying to figure out the last 2 days what to post about difficult child being released from psychiatric hospital tomorrow and still don't have much to say that may make sense, but here goes.
Our meeting at the hospital on Friday didn't really accomplish a whole lot, what did get accomplished was, the family based team is going to put more hours during the week at the home with us as well as help on Sundays. Maybe I should back up a little bit. "You know that placement in Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) isn't going to happen overnight." That's what was said to us, and husband and I knew that. Alternative to him coming home in the meantime was to be placed in juvenile hall and I've been doing some research and those in juvenile hall it can take 6 months or longer before they're placed into Residential Treatment Facility (RTF), nor do they get any kind of mental health supports while they're in juvie. And there also wouldn't be anyone for him to communicate with while he was there, and foster care can't deal with the deafness either, so we truly didn't have a choice in bringing him home on Monday. *fast forward a little bit* One thing husband's boss is going to adjust his works schedule so I'm not alone with son by myself for too many hours. His normal psychiatrist says she has no trouble in recommending Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) for difficult child, so that's something that before she didn't want to do, but she's changed her mind on that, she still wants to try to get him placed into the one that deals with deaf children, which would mean a fight about the diabetes again, but sd said they'd pay for a nurse to be with him just for his diabetes. So my fingers are crossed. Another thing that was disheartening, a few of the other Residential Treatment Facility (RTF)'s I checked into have lawsuits against them, one for breaking a child's arm because staff sat on the person, and the other a child died because staff wouldn't get off his back and he had asthma. The kid weighed 117lbs and the staff person weighed 300. These types of stories are killing me inside. The one place that does sound promising is in another state, and insurance has to try everywhere in this state first.
During this meeting we had the family based lead there and his supervisor as well as on the phone we had the SD there, and the school he attends as well as the mh/mr case worker, and his therapist. SW said we had alot of support, I know we do from his school and from his therapist, but I'm still not sure the supports are there from the others. (just little things that have happened). SD said she didn't realize that difficult child was still having problems in school since he does have an aide during the day with him, school has called SD and has apprised them of the situation.
SW says that since difficult child has been there, there's not been any acts of violence or any agitation, but he's still been a bit oppositional but they're not sure how much that is true oppositional behavior or because he's misunderstanding the interpreter and it's causing frustration. He also says he has racing thoughts and don't know how to control them, and that he still has an evil person inside his head telling him what to do. His glucose levels still aren't under control either. They keep changing his insulin doses
After the meeting we visited with difficult child for a few minutes, the SW had to wake him up to come down to see us. He's been sleeping alot while he's there. In my opinion, I think he's been sleeping so much because they're just keeping him drugged up to not deal with any violent behaviors from him. I mean, I'm happy he's not showing the behavior he did at home, but there's got to be a different way to handle this than to keep him so doped up all he wants to do is sleep. According to the nurse the only thing they increased was the Geodon and that was only the bedtime dose.
Anyway that's the latest on what's happening.
Our meeting at the hospital on Friday didn't really accomplish a whole lot, what did get accomplished was, the family based team is going to put more hours during the week at the home with us as well as help on Sundays. Maybe I should back up a little bit. "You know that placement in Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) isn't going to happen overnight." That's what was said to us, and husband and I knew that. Alternative to him coming home in the meantime was to be placed in juvenile hall and I've been doing some research and those in juvenile hall it can take 6 months or longer before they're placed into Residential Treatment Facility (RTF), nor do they get any kind of mental health supports while they're in juvie. And there also wouldn't be anyone for him to communicate with while he was there, and foster care can't deal with the deafness either, so we truly didn't have a choice in bringing him home on Monday. *fast forward a little bit* One thing husband's boss is going to adjust his works schedule so I'm not alone with son by myself for too many hours. His normal psychiatrist says she has no trouble in recommending Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) for difficult child, so that's something that before she didn't want to do, but she's changed her mind on that, she still wants to try to get him placed into the one that deals with deaf children, which would mean a fight about the diabetes again, but sd said they'd pay for a nurse to be with him just for his diabetes. So my fingers are crossed. Another thing that was disheartening, a few of the other Residential Treatment Facility (RTF)'s I checked into have lawsuits against them, one for breaking a child's arm because staff sat on the person, and the other a child died because staff wouldn't get off his back and he had asthma. The kid weighed 117lbs and the staff person weighed 300. These types of stories are killing me inside. The one place that does sound promising is in another state, and insurance has to try everywhere in this state first.
During this meeting we had the family based lead there and his supervisor as well as on the phone we had the SD there, and the school he attends as well as the mh/mr case worker, and his therapist. SW said we had alot of support, I know we do from his school and from his therapist, but I'm still not sure the supports are there from the others. (just little things that have happened). SD said she didn't realize that difficult child was still having problems in school since he does have an aide during the day with him, school has called SD and has apprised them of the situation.
SW says that since difficult child has been there, there's not been any acts of violence or any agitation, but he's still been a bit oppositional but they're not sure how much that is true oppositional behavior or because he's misunderstanding the interpreter and it's causing frustration. He also says he has racing thoughts and don't know how to control them, and that he still has an evil person inside his head telling him what to do. His glucose levels still aren't under control either. They keep changing his insulin doses
After the meeting we visited with difficult child for a few minutes, the SW had to wake him up to come down to see us. He's been sleeping alot while he's there. In my opinion, I think he's been sleeping so much because they're just keeping him drugged up to not deal with any violent behaviors from him. I mean, I'm happy he's not showing the behavior he did at home, but there's got to be a different way to handle this than to keep him so doped up all he wants to do is sleep. According to the nurse the only thing they increased was the Geodon and that was only the bedtime dose.
Anyway that's the latest on what's happening.