In the last four days, I have been told all of the following:

Your son must have an evaluation and comply with treatment.

Your son must go home, into your care and custody, and behave himself.

We will evaluate your son and recommend him for inpatient treatment.

Oops, no, the on-call doctor will pass the buck to your son’s doctor – but not until Monday.

Your son has said you hit him on the head, yet there is no injury, no bump, no nothing.

Your son will need to hit rock bottom before he will accept help, and he will likely end up in jail or worse.

If you take your son to the ER for another evaluation, the doctor will admit him.

If your son shows up at your house, call 911 and the police will take him to the ER and the doctor will admit him.

Oops, no, the police can’t do this – after I was put on “hold” by 911.

If you can get your son to the ER, the doctor will admit him – this was the THIRD time that the doctor’s office told me this just today.

Intake will be calling you.

No, just talked to Intake, the Crisis Intervention guy will be calling you and making arrangements to pick up your son and take him to the ER, where he will be admitted.

The police can do nothing; the Crisis people can do nothing. 

The Family Court will not take this case – but wait, they ALREADY HAVE this case!  WTH??

Call NAMI for a support group near you.

It’s enough to request the Witness Protection Program, but I’m here to tell you: this is a bunch of BS.  Civilly, I’m told, my son is a child; criminally, he’s an adult.  Fine, I get that.  But, if I’m supposed to take care of him, civilly, as in support, feed, clothe, shelter, obtain medical care, why does this NOT APPLY TO MENTAL HEALTH????

Why does he have to consent to mental health treatment?  Do we really need to just let incompetent crazy people run around loose – well, with the exception of those in D.C.?  But tell their parents/guardians that THEY are responsible for any stupid thing they do?  What a crock.

I guarandamntee you that, if I was refusing to obtain treatment for a sick child with a 105 degree fever, the Children’s Division would be all over me and filing every motion they could find – not to mention falling all over themselves to help me get “services”.  But not for mental health.

Again, what a crock.

I wrote this yesterday morning, and quite a bit has transpired since then.  Please do read to the end for a bit of clarification.

Dear Local Hospital:

You suck.

My apologies, but there is just no other way to phrase this.

Two-and-a-half years ago, I said there was something wrong with my son – gee, anyone see a pattern here – and I brought him to you.  Under police escort.  After sending a young girl to ask him a few questions, it was decided that there was “nothing” wrong with him and he was sent home.

Thanks.

About nine months later, he went on a hunger strike.  Supposedly.  We brought him back to you.  This time I insisted that he stay overnight for an in-depth evaluation.  He was admitted at 6:00 p.m.  This means he had dinner and spent a few hours on the ward before bedtime; at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, after spending a few minutes talking to a psychiatrist, I got the phone call to come and get him.  He was assigned to “outpatient” therapy, which consisted of spending about five hours a day for two weeks with a group of high school kids who were substance abusers.

Thanks bunches.  I’m sure it gave him a few ideas, but he doesn’t use drugs or drink, so where, exactly, was the benefit?

We finally have a diagnosis.  Two, in fact.  So we make an appointment with a department called “intake”.  We’re expecting testing, further diagnosis, and a call for inpatient treatment.

Why?  Well, because we keep hearing raves about your behavioral health department.  Although, when I told my son’s psychiatrist about the last two times we visited your establishment, he told me himself that you all weren’t very good at this.  Can’t quite fathom why he sent us back….

At any rate, guess what happened?  Someone talked to my son for about 10 minutes, then brought me in to talk, too.  With him present.  No one asked for records, reports, habits, issues, nothing.  Since our doctor was out-of-town, the on-call guy was spoken with and he said to wait and let OUR doctor make the decision.  The gal who “interviewed” us said outpatient would be good.

Thank you, again, ever so very much.

You all suck.  Big time.  Let’s see, even as a “civilian” I know enough that a kid who is verbally abusive, physically aggressive, skips doctor appointments, and doesn’t take his meds needs to be monitored and tested and NEEDS TREATMENT.

He does NOT need to come home so he can take off, lounge around, be a jerk to his family, destroy property, become violent, and a host of other things we’ve been dealing with.

We ask for help, we have insurance, we have money, what is YOUR FREAKING PROBLEM??

Again, let me extend my thanks for being the biggest excuse for mental health services that I have EVER run across in all of the last almost-three years.  Seriously, you should have a disclaimer on your website which says “OOPS, SORRY, PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE ONE DAMN WORD YOU HAVE JUST READ.”

Addendum (I DID say to read all the way to the end!)

My son took off again.  No surprise to anyone, really.  It was because I told him “no” on spending the night with a friend – the same friend he’d been staying with for a couple weeks.  He was not a happy camper.  He did his usual drill.  He left.

This time he went to the police station and filed a false report saying I’d hit him over the head with a large, heavy object.  An officer visited me, for about ten minutes, wrote the report , and filed it.  Then the hospital called.  Yep, same one.

I talked to a very nice young man named Joe.  Joe was wonderful; Joe was brilliant; Joe saw the big picture.  Joe examined my son, and there was no injury.  No surprise.

I do understand words like “Conduct Disorder” and “Bipolar Disorder”.  I do not understand, even with zero evidence, how my son can “claim” the things he has insisted are true.  Why would a rational person, even semi-rational, believe something that is not there, not seen, and did not happen?  Or better, why would he think anyone else would believe it?

It’s really too bad Joe doesn’t work in the detention center.  He could tell those bozos a thing or two about lying teenagers.  Or maybe not.  They’re pretty focused on “saving the poor, innocent child”.

At any rate, even Joe could do nothing but write a report and encourage my son to see his doctor on Monday.  Why?

Because Missouri has a law.  Well, okay, they have rather a lot of them, and many make no sense whatsoever – typical, right?  According to the hospital, the law is interpreted as such that NO PERSON, unless he is threatening his own life or the life of another, can be admitted for inpatient psychiatric treatment.  Period.

More on that tomorrow because, frankly, that is NOT what the law pertaining to minors says at all.