Help with placement

[Kris Thompson]

Hello,
Can anyone tell me who is suposed to help us find the right help. My son has been sick for over a year, he is diagnosed with ADHD hyper focus, major depression, anxiety. He had a long physical illness that has cleared up.

We are now looking to get more help for him, we are just regular parents, we don't have a degree in the mental health field. We have both types of doctors but neither of them have given us tools to help. We have been calling places on our own and so far no place is willing to accept our son. Perhaps I am asking the wrong questions, perhaps I am giving the wrong information. Who or where do I go to get him placed?

I cannot home school him-he does have an IEP that has him homebound. I am lucky to get our school district to have tutoring for Math and English, they want to help more but are unsure how to help him. He is unable to face the other students, too many of them, over 3,000+, they have no special programs that he qualifies for, he is now 16 with only 5 high school credits. He went from a A-B student to being unable to attend. He has some trust issues due to past treatment by our school before they realized that he really was sick.

Any ideas are welcome.

[kkelli]

Public schools are obligated by law to educate all children. I don't know what state you live in, but if he has an IEP and is homebound, they have to work around that to provide him with the same education as any other student. That would probably mean tutoring him in all required subjects to graduate, not just math and English. Another idea is completing his education online. Search google for information on that.

As far as the ADD, depression, anxiety, have you asked his doctor for referrals? Ask other parents, friends, teachers you know for referrals to doctors/therapists they would recommend. Try your county's Health and Human Services Department for information. Someone there should be able to give you the information you need on what is available.

[teenmom2111]

Hello Chris

I also have a child with emotional problems--adhd and has now been diagnosed with depression. We just started meds about a week ago, so there has not been enough time yet to see if he is being properly diagnosed. I will keep this site posted as time goes on and we see how he responds. BY the way my child is almost 15 years old

I struggled for years trying to find the right therapist. I finally have and she referred me to a psychiatrist. The 2 working together has finally made a difference. Don't get me wrong---the problems are not yet solved, but I do feel confident that we are on the right track. What I have found through trial and error is that it is extremely difficult to find a competent therapist that you and your child can connect with. Even more difficult is finding the right psychiatrist. My advice is to find a good therapist. Ask around--you would be surprised how many kids are seeing therapists. Second, once you have a good solid therapist, ask for a referral to a psychiatrist that they WILL work closely with and get a full psychiatric evaluation.

I wish you luck and feel free to write if you have qustions.

[Txsnglmom]

Do you have any Charter schools in your area? Maybe that could be an option for you. I understand about how the schools can treat the kids. I have had good and bad experiences (things like calling the kids idiots or other things). I have never had any dealings with ADHD, but it sounds like he needs the right kind of doctor to help him.

[Kris Thompson]

Thank you all for answering my question. I live in a very rural area in IN, we only have one HS and no Charter schools available. The way that I uderstand the laws for our state is they can only be tutored for 5 hours per week, and only in English and Math. Thankfully our school district is giving us this help. They also have an online class system, unfortunatly it does not interest my son. No sound, no color and quite frankly not very motivational.

On the good news side, our shrink has given us a name for a new therapist to try EMDR and adjusted his medication again. So we hope this will make a better difference in his recovery. I hope this works, he has lost 1 1/4 years of his education and life as a student. I fear what will happen when all his friends graduate and he is left behind. He really is a great kid, but he has lost touch with his school friends. It is understandable, they are all 15 and don't know what to say to him, they all do sports, have homework, learning how to drive and many are starting to date. We will do our best to keep him going and eventually he will finish school.