Catching up

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Sorry I've been MIA from the board lately. Things have been pretty crazy for the

past few months to say the least! I do read many of the posts and want to reply

but then time gets away from me and I have a hard time catching up with the

threads. I think of you all and pray for you and your kids often.

My son (16) has been at 's for 4 months now and is doing SO much better

than he did when he was admitted. It was pretty shaky for a while there with his

weight loss and eating and his tics going through the roof. He's to the point

now where his tics are much more controllable and thank God his weight and

eating have been stable for some time now. He's also been able to participate in

a lot of activities and excursions, which is great. Overall he is so much

stronger and they have done an amazing job with him, as he has been a VERY

challenging and complex case.

We know at this point that the days of continued insurance coverage are numbered

since there was that whole denial debacle a few months ago. I hold my breath

every time I know there is a review coming up. So far they've continued

approving him every 2 weeks, but everyone agrees that most likely won't continue

for a lot longer.

At this juncture it seems that the most viable next step will be a wilderness

therapy program. It's a long story, but due to his lack of self-motivation to

accomplish basic daily living tasks without constant prompting, among other

things, his options for a therapeutic boarding school are pretty much

non-existent. Home is definitely out of the question as he'd end up right back

at 's in no time flat. We're working with an educational consultant, who I

absolutely love, and she happens to have a lot of experience with placing kids

in the wilderness programs.

A few months ago I never would have considered this because my son was in far

too fragile a state, emotionally and physically, but he's in a much stronger

place now and I think the timing is right. Ill still be scared to death with him

being out there and worrying about him regressing due to the huge change and

adjustment he's going to encounter, but the reality is there really aren't any

other viable options.

Unfortunately wilderness therapy is not something that the school district will

consider funding, and insurance will pay very little if any at all. If anyone

has suggestions for any organizations to contact or other means of possible

funding, please let me know. The programs we're considering have all said

they're willing to work with us financially, but from what I understand it will

be a small reduction in the fee and not enough to make it affordable.

I know several of you are headed to the OCD conference next week, wish I was

able to go but just can't swing it financially. I'll look forward to hearing

about it from the list!

Hugs to all, D.

[Guest guest]

That is absolutely tremendous that he is on board. It looks like you finally

found the thing he wants to do. Keep us posted so we can keep him/you in our

thoughts and prayers.

Rhonda

Re: Re: Catching up

Thanks, My son's team at 's, as well as the educational

consultant, explained that although therapeutic boarding schools do provide

intensive daily therapy, etc., it's just not at the level of care where they'lll

be able to prompt him with things every step of the way like they're having to

do at 's. The only place that could happen would either be another

residential treatment facility, or a school with severely impaired kids.

Before I really started researching Wilderness Therapy, I was also under the

impression it is for kids with serious behavioral and drug issues, however there

are actually several programs that cater to kids on the spectrum, OCD, etc. They

don't do ERP, however my son's doctor at 's feels that at this juncture he

doesn't really need ERP as much as he does " a push " to get him to the " finish

line " as he puts it.

Just had our weekly phone meeting this morning and it looks like we are

actually putting a discharge plan in place for 2-3 weeks from this Friday!!

Everyone, son included, is on board with Wilderness. I know my son is scared and

worried about it, but I assured him that it's normal to feel that way when

you're going someplace where you don't know anyone and it's a new environment,

especially out in the Wilderness.

He'll most likely be going to a program in Utah not too far from Salt Lake,

it's supposed to be just breathtaking scenery. This program is " adventure-based "

meaning that while they do hiking/camping, they also have expeditions like

white-water rafting, rock-climbing, horse-backriding, etc. I have a strong

feeling that this will be an amazing, life-changing experience for him that will

enable him to grow and mature in so many ways that could otherwise take years to

accomplish (if ever) given his issues.

I know there are no guarantees and I'm sure I'll have many sleepless nights

worrying about him out there, but I will try my best to be strong. 's has

truly performed miracles and taken my son so far in the past 4+ months and

everyone agrees that now it's time for him to move on to the next step.

> , thanks for the update, been wondering. Like you I haven't had time to

reply much lately but do peek in and read a few.

>

> Why can't the therapeutic boarding school serve him? I guess the word

" therapeutic " seems like it would be able to respond to each person's needs

(thus if he needs prompting to do tasks...). So a wilderness school could do

these things??? I generally think of wilderness for more " behavioral " cases,

which OCD/Aspergers isn't (necessarily).... Guess I'm wondering how they treat

OCD, experience?

>

> I