Wrap around services - mini vent

[flutterby]

I attended difficult child 2's wrap around meeting Wednesday. It was my first meeting. They've had 3 or 4 previous. They are every Wednesday at difficult child 2's home.

I really like the idea of wrap around services. The more support difficult child 2 gets the better. And even if he doesn't get much out of the program, at least he will feel like there are people rooting for him, Know what I mean??

But....

The entire 2 hours was spent arguing over semantics. We needed to come up with goals for difficult child 2, which really confused his mom because they had already come up with a main goal. Apparently *that* goal doesn't go in the report and they have to come up with mini goals for home, community and school. Except that the goal that we came up with was the same thing as the main goal.

Then we'd suggest things like "difficult child 2 should talk to someone he feels comfortable with about how he's feeling, what he's struggling with, etc." Just to be told that that is not a goal; it's an objective.

Huh?

Apparently the goal is to decrease impulsive behavior. (Side note: we had to have a discussion about THAT because the guy leading the thing was under the impression that we only needed to worry about destructive impulsivity. That's like telling an alcoholic that he can have one drink a day. He told us we were looking too far down the road. Well, yeah.)

Anyway, we thought another goal would be what I mentioned about talking to someone, etc. But, no, that's an objective under the goal of decreasing impulsive behavior. Which is stupid because difficult child 2 has never been in the habit of talking to *anyone* about these things and, therefore, it's a goal. This went on and on about everything we mentioned.

They can call it whatever they want. It's stuff that needs to be worked on. Why in the world did they have to spend 2 hours arguing over goals vs objectives, making it impossible to come up with something that fit into his box. And when difficult child 2 isn't in the habit of practicing the objectives needed to reach the goal, doesn't that then make them all goals?

And who the heck cares anyway??? This is just stuff that difficult child 2 needs support with. Call it whatever you want.

But, they have to put it in their report this way, so it has to be just so.

Ugh. Can't see the forest for the trees.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to brainstorm ways to help difficult child 2, ways for difficult child 2 to help himself, and come up with a plan to support that? Instead of saying, oh no, we can't write that down because it's an objective.

Am I missing something here? Cause I was just really confused.

 

[timer lady]

Having had wrap around services for I don't know how many years, Heather I have to tell you that you must play the game.

We spend hours in quarterly staffings discussing goals & objectives to support those goals (or vice versa) can never remember which comes first.

AND goals & objectives are a way for the county/state to account for the service dollars. It's important to have in the documentation; it's important to address these things slowly so they stick.

The fact that you have the services in place is half heck 3/4 of the battle. Now it's time to come up with an effective treatment plan. And let me tell you the first time I saw the treatment plan or "goals" for kt & wm I was gobsmacked.

I felt that it wasn't fast enough ~ they needed to be pushing this along toward age appropriate behaviors & choices. I soon learned that to get to that point the underlying issues must be addressed.

I would grit your teeth & find some patience. If you have wrap you have a serious situation on your hands & it's not going to turn around over night. Over the next year. It's a way of life.

 

[flutterby]

Thanks, Linda. This is all new to me.

I probably wouldn't feel as frustrated, but it's my understanding that these services for difficult child 2 are only in place for 6 months. I just want to feel like we're getting somewhere.

Today, they are coming out to do their own 'assessment'. We'll see how that goes.

 

[DammitJanet]

H...I have been approved to start back with my therapist, Joy, for what is really wrap around services because of the way funding is now being done. Good old therapy is a thing of the past...lol. I have a long range outcome goal and a short range goal x2. We had to brainstorm together to get those. This whole thing came out from a document where you answer questions about what is working in your life, what is not working in your life, blah blah blah. I can send you a link to a blank copy of this form...NC is nice enough to put it on the web...lol. http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/MHDDSAS/pcp.htm

Just click on complete PCP.

I should have my new copy of this thing within the next week or two with all my new diagnosis's and GAF scores....how nice...LOL.

The nice thing about this new PCP is that I will get at the very least two hour chunks of time with Joy...maybe more. But we will also have to find a way to track goals...that is going to be trickier I think. I think we are going to have to tweak the goals.