Very, very bad meeting...

[DaisyFace]

I just wanted to thank you all again for being so supportive!

I have also received some PMs with great ideas on where to turn to find MH programs and Residential Treatment Center (RTC)...

Unfortunately, it is not a matter anymore of "finding" programs. I have talked to everyone I can think to talk to. I have contacted pastors, teachers, guidance counselors, family support groups, NAMI, Department of Juvenile Justice officers, the family court, city police, county police, state police, three different hospital systems, the state university, dss, cps, I even had a woman from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children making calls and pulling strings on my family's behalf.

And from all of these people - who want very much to be able to help - the phrase I have heard over and over and over again is "used to"...

As in:

"We used to do that."
"We used to offer that"
"There used to be a program..."
"There used to be a group..."
"So-and-so used to do..."
"Such-and-such used to have..."
"There used to be a place..."

But it all really means the same thing:

There USED TO BE FUNDING.

 

[AnnieO]

Exactly!!!

We just decided to ignore the whole funding thing. But then, we can.

Still... We're fishing...

 

[TerryJ2]

Arg! All of your preparation for naught.

The others here have some great ideas and advice. Seems like you'll need another route.

{{hugs}}

 

[DammitJanet]

I know I have asked this before but...have you checked Eckards?

 

[DaisyFace]

I know I have asked this before but...have you checked Eckards?

Yes - we have. They do not accept Medicaid. The tuition for their residential programs requires "student loan" type financing. There is no "sliding scale"...

 

[susiestar]

This is one more thing to reach out to pastors for. You want to know if they know of programs and/or of any way to get FUNDING for these programs.

If that won't help, why not lay it out on the line and start some kind of fundraiser? SEll stuff on ebay with the message saying you are selling your beloved XYZ in a desperate attempt to get enough money to pay for the mental health treatment that your very ill teenage daughter needs, help you want her to get before she commits some horrible crime against another person. You have appealed to A,B,and C local state and federal agencies and not a single one of them will give you any help or even a dollar toward this. You are desperate to find a way to finance the help she needs because you cannot bear the thought of how many people she could hurt once she is an adult and you cannot force her to get help or if she were to suddenly snap and attack someone. You figure it has GOT to be easier to sell your cherished possessions to fund mental health treatment than it will be when she commits a crime and the state has to pay for her legal defense and for her lifetime prison sentence.

Trust me - put a couple of ads like this on ebay then forward a link to some local reporters and let us know so we can also send it to reporters we know - you will get LOTS of attention. ESP if you say you have appealed to X State Dept of social services (or whatever) and have beentold they will show you how to set up a behavior chart but won't even provide weekly therapy because they have no funding.

The state senators, reps, federal senators, reps, judges, governor, news people all over the WORLD will be talking about this. But you MUST make sure enough people know who can spread the word via twitter, blogs, etc...

This just occurred to me - for some reason the memory of some mom who sold her kids' gamecube or ps3 or something because they couldn't follow the rules and destroyed the house so she had to sell it to pay for the repairs brought this to mind.

The media LOVES a novel way to illustrate a current crisis. mental health care IS a crisis in this country.

This may be too far out of the ballpark, out of normal or acceptable for you to be comfortable. But you are a creative person - maybe you can use it to find another way to get funding, cause it seems pretty clear that the agencies involved can't help because they don't have the $$. (or won't help because someone is embezzling, or whatever, the end result is the same.)

I hope that isn't too far out into strange, It just sort of popped into my head and out onto the screen.

 

[DaisyFace]

The good news is that therapist and I are woking on a new strategy...

I will post more at a later time.

 

[rlsnights]

Hope you are able to work something out soon.

Best wishes,

Patricia

 

[DammitJanet]

Really DF? Back when Cory was in school, that is where the school system was sending the kids. I will do some checking.

 

[DaisyFace]

Really DF? Back when Cory was in school, that is where the school system was sending the kids. I will do some checking.

Might be another one of those "used to" situations...

It also looks like there are different kinds of programs available at Eckards - there is a "Challenge Program" just for boys that accepts kids struggling in school and/or the community.

Unfortunately, it does not look as though they have a similar program for girls....which leaves just their full-price residential services.