This blog is my place to vent and share resources with other parents of children of trauma. I try to be open and honest about my feelings in order to help others know they are not alone. Therapeutic parenting of adopted teenagers with RAD and other severe mental illnesses and issues (plus "neurotypical" teens) , is not easy, and there are time when I say what I feel... at the moment. We're all human!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Residential Treatment

For so long I've been saying that Kitty is not doing well and is getting worse. It felt like everyone except one therapist (not even totally Kitty's therapist, but the EMDR therapist who works with the whole family) seemed to think she was fine.

The school especially kept saying that she was fine at school and any issues she had were no big deal, and a "fluke." They are still maintaining that she can't go to the special school until all the testing is done. I think that's stupid. If we had documentation that she'd gone blind over the Summer would they still be doing testing 6 weeks later to determine if she needed to be taught how to read Braillle and maybe she should be pulled out of Drawing class?!

Over the weekend, Kitty escalated yet again. During an argument, for once not over chores, she threatened to jump out her 2nd story window (opened it, but shut when Hubby told her to), and had meltdown after meltdown culminating in some property damage and using an eraser to take off layers of skin with an eraser (worst self-harming she's ever done). We had to take her back to the psych hospital.

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Now all of the sudden, we're being told that she needs to go into residential treatment for a year. The psychiatrists say there are no med adjustments that will help. They can't get her stable. They want her to go straight into residential treatment from the hospital.

Medicaid will pay for 7 days at most of psych hospitalization (maybe even less because we're not making med changes) and she went in on Monday so that means next Monday at best.

Texas Medicaid doesn't cover residential treatment, so I have to get the state we adopted from to honor the legal agreement we had added to our adoption subsidy (THANK YOU LISA!)and pay. Which means I have to get a state agency to go through beaurocratic red tape and pay money... before she's discharged.

Plus I have to find, research and make arrangements for a good residential treatment center... that can accommodate her complex issues, and that will accept her even though she's not stable, and has a bed... before she's discharged on Monday.


I'm freaking out and overwhelmed.