Witz- it might come to that- leaving without him in the psychiatric hospital, but so far, the psychiatric hospital has not been any problem. They have never sent him away without admittance. We had to have him transported to a different one in the spring, but that was me trying to do something a little slyly and the PO ruining that for me- but the psychiatric hospital did arrange the transport.
Anyway, it is the getting difficult child there that is the problem. When he went in the spring, he was more on the suicidal end, in my humble opinion, at that very moment. Now, I think he had been cycling a lot but I "talked him into" going by telling him he needed a medication change, I was seriously concerned about his health, and if he didn't go, I'd have to call someone to physically take him. He bought that, but I had already tried to find a way to have cops, ambulance, anyone come and physically take him and they said that they would not under those circumstances. I was bluffing difficult child.
Now, as far as getting him placed out of home, whether it is foster home or Residential Treatment Center (RTC), that is one of the things I am exploring. The process varies from state to state and in this state, it has to go through the CSA procedures. There are a few ways to make that happen. One is a court order- for whatever reason that I don't understand, the judge did not order that before.
At this point, it seems preferable that the school refer him instead of the judge ordering him. This is the best option, from what I can tell. The school refers him (the family) for CSA funded services, but they alone don't determine what that service or placement would be. That just gets the ball rolling to get the FAPT (rep from all agencies, including school, Department of Juvenile Justice, mental health, and parent) together to meet, share info, then cumulatively (supposedly) decide on a plan to restore order and full functioning of the difficult child and family. (If it's court ordered, the parent does not have to agree- the other team members make the decision.) Services could cover anything- temporary out of home placement, an Residential Treatment Center (RTC), keeping kid at home but helping with finances or transportation, in home therapy, etc.
Since difficult child is on probation, I have no doubt that the courts will have to be involved. But with the personalities involved, I think it is preferable for me to propose a solution, even if this is it. Iwant to avoid the court order so I stay a part of the decision making process.
I'm probably going to email the principal and ask her what she thinks about this- we have been getting along pretty well and she needs to know that I'm not just sitting here ignoring difficult child's inability to get to school anyway. Also, I'm going to ask her if she has any other suggestions or knows of any options.
She used to work at the state Department of Juvenile Justice detention center in the education dept., so she might have some other idea. I saw a report put out by Department of Juvenile Justice saying they prefer that a kid in the system, but not yet incarcerated, be able to use csa funding to prevent the kid from continuing in a situation that leads him/her to be incarcerated. Clearly, this is where my son is. The judge is on the local advisory team for this.
What makes it most difficult is that the reps and processes, procedures and determination for approval, are all different for each jurisdiction in the state. The psychiatric hospital (there are 2 for kids and I'm referring to both here) are in neighborhing jurisdictions, not ours. So, they can recommend something, but they can't really require it or refer it to the board because they aren't in this jurisdiction. We explored that the first time difficult child was in the psychiatric hospital.
I don't think I'll have too much trouble getting therapist and psychiatrist to back me up, but they can't refer this either because if it is a mental health referral, it has to be a provider designated by this team, which goes right back to that *** clinic.
Please understand, if it were me making 1 or 2 trips to the clinic to get this done it would be one thing. We're talking starting at square one though before they would refer difficult child. The guy from state dept of mental health told me that- they would have to evaluation difficult child to see if they think he's BiPolar (BP). Then, they have to treat him to see if they can get him stable. Then if that fails, they might refer him, unless they determine that it failed because he was uncooperative and unless he's already in detention because he broke another law. I can only imagine where this would lead if they take difficult child off all medications and send him home while they determine if they think he needs medications.
Obviously, I'd rather the school refer him, then let the team get verification from the private therapist/psychiatrist that he has a mental health diagnosis. If the school refers him, I don't think they can sit here for a year making us bark up the clinic's tree before taking action. If they do, then they can explain to the school why difficult child had to spend half the day at the clinic waiting to get in to his 1 hr appointment. And they can transport difficult child and wait with him while I'm at work, or they can pay my bills and I'll go sit over there half the day, and they can figure out what should be done and how to treat difficult child when they repetetively lose his file at the clinic.
I've been searching like crazy trying to find our jurisdictions "policies & procedures" guide on line and I haven't found it yet. Everything else from the state and county is on here- surely it would be too. I'm trying to find out if the school refers difficult child, how long would it take to get an FAPT meeting, what's the sliding scale for parents, if required, are there any time liimits involved for anything, etc.
Oh- jal- I had talked with a person at social services desk a couple of mos ago- I'd like to speak with someone higher up but haven't figured out how to get past that lady first. LOL! Anyway, that lady said if it's a legal complaint against difficult child, go to courts, if its mental health issue, go to clinic, if it's financial, apply for medicaid. Well, he won't qualify for medicaid this way because if I could work full-time, I'd make too much. If you get this CSA funding, it bypasses normal requirements for medicaid or something like that. Anyway, that's when I started calling the state dept of mental health. The guy there basicly told me the same thing. Except, he also told me that the school could refer it.
