TN autism treatment center has cops jail patient who's mentally 7 years old

[Jwheel86]

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article284539860.html?ac_cid=DM907178&ac_bid=919316226

 

Quote

It had been less than five days since Greg Cockrell dropped off his autistic son, Sam, at a treatment center when staff informed him the 19-year-old was in jail. “Didn’t anyone tell you about the incident?” a staff member asked. The Ranch, a private mental health treatment center hundreds of miles away in Tennessee, was not the family’s first choice for their son’s psychiatric treatment. They had tried to get him admitted at North Carolina’s foremost hospitals, but his aggression was “too severe to be safely managed,” according to documents from UNC’s flagship hospital, reviewed by the N&O. The three state-run facilities that specialize in treating people with complex developmental disabilities, like Sam, had waitlists that stretched on for months or years.

 

By the time Cockrell arrived in Tennessee to bail him out, Sam had been in a cell and unmedicated for more than 17 hours.

 

[Uaarkson]

As the parent of two autistic children, this absolutely enrages me.

[best3444]

56 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

As the parent of two autistic children, this absolutely enrages me.

 

Two of my nephews are autistic. My heart goes out to you. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Everything about that article is just utterly heartbreaking.

[Ghost_MH]

4 hours ago, Uaarkson said:

As the parent of two autistic children, this absolutely enrages me.

 

My middle child is autistic and these are the stories that both enrage and frighten me. She's 6, the size of a 10yo, gentle and sweet as can be, but prone to random screams. I'm happy I live in Massachusetts and have the kids in a school system that can get her help. Right now, I'm just hoping she learns to use a toilet and maybe handle some yes/no questions. Unfortunately, public schools don't last forever and I have no idea where she'll be when she's 19.

[CayceG]

This facility is also an hour or more outside of Nashville. There are no local resources. 

 

I have no clue what to say other than just to lament how we treat people who need significant medical behavioral help. 

[skillzdadirecta]

My ex' son is autistic and afro-latino and she is TERRIFIED of something like this happening to him. FUCK THE SOUTH.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

Right now, I'm just hoping she learns to use a toilet and maybe handle some yes/no questions. Unfortunately, public schools don't last forever and I have no idea where she'll be when she's 19.

My ex's son is 21 and is aging out of the School system so she's trying to figure out what to do with him after August. Fortunately we live in Los Angeles and she has a little bit of money so it should work out. He's non-verbal and requires constant supervision but he can go to the bathroom and answer basic questions. 

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

My middle child is autistic and these are the stories that both enrage and frighten me. She's 6, the size of a 10yo, gentle and sweet as can be, but prone to random screams. I'm happy I love in Massachusetts and have the kids in a school system that can get her help. Right now, I'm just hoping she learns to use a toilet and maybe handle some yes/no questions. Unfortunately, public schools don't last forever and I have no idea where she'll be when she's 19.

 

There's no adult programs? My brother in NJ was able to keep going to the same place he'd been going as a kid once he turned 18. IIRC it's all paid by the state except for like two weeks between end of the regular year and the summer program, and you can also just not pay for those two weeks. 

[TyphoidHater]

I help babysit two autistic toddlers who might as well be family and this is yet another reason I'm glad I'm in upstate NY near blue districts (since most of upstate is red).

 

Not saying they'll have an easy time growing up here.  But it should be easier than in this story.

 

Hopefully.

[Jwheel86]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

My middle child is autistic and these are the stories that both enrage and frighten me. She's 6, the size of a 10yo, gentle and sweet as can be, but prone to random screams. I'm happy I live in Massachusetts and have the kids in a school system that can get her help. Right now, I'm just hoping she learns to use a toilet and maybe handle some yes/no questions. Unfortunately, public schools don't last forever and I have no idea where she'll be when she's 19.

 

As early as possible get her on Social Security SSI (then open an ABLE Account, that you could actually do now, it's basically a 529 Savings account, and draft a 3rd Party Special Needs Trust and have your Wills direct her inheritance to the Trust), SSI will get her a small income (she get full Social Security Disability when you retire) and most importantly Medicaid under federal eligibility. With Medicaid you'll want to get her on whatever the developmental disability waiver Mass has, that'll get her Day Supports, Supported Employment, and Direct Support Professionals in your home. Done the road you can look into Group Homes. Some of this stuff she might be eligible for now. Mass currently doesn't have a waiting list, but that can change. 

[Ghost_MH]

46 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

My ex's son is 21 and is aging out of the School system so she's trying to figure out what to do with him after August. Fortunately we live in Los Angeles and she has a little bit of money so it should work out. He's non-verbal and requires constant supervision but he can go to the bathroom and answer basic questions. 

 

It's always fun how unique everyone is case to case. My daughter is verbal, but she has no language. It's as if someone reached into her head and just snatched her ability to process language, but not her ability to speak. She can read, she can label things, she can sing and get all the lyrics right, she can repeat her favorite episodes of Daniel Tiger, and even commercials. Nobody can tell if she understands any of it, though. There was a period of time when she thought "thank you" was pronounced "for contributions to your local PBS station and viewers like you" and "good night" was "Hey Google, turn off the girls light".

 

43 minutes ago, Jason said:

There's no adult programs? My brother in NJ was able to keep going to the same place he'd been going as a kid once he turned 18. IIRC it's all paid by the state except for like two weeks between end of the regular year and the summer program, and you can also just not pay for those two weeks. 

 

I'm sure there are and I'll start worrying about them when she's in her teens. Who knows what the landscape will look like ten, fifteen years from now. I wish summer school were longer for her. She gets a month of half day classes.

[best3444]

40 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

It's always fun how unique everyone is case to case. My daughter is verbal, but she has no language. It's as if someone reached into her head and just snatched her ability to process language, but not her ability to speak. She can read, she can label things, she can sing and get all the lyrics right, she can repeat her favorite episodes of Daniel Tiger, and even commercials. Nobody can tell if she understands any of it, though. There was a period of time when she thought "thank you" was pronounced "for contributions to your local PBS station and viewers like you" and "good night" was "Hey Google, turn off the girls light".

 

 

I'm sure there are and I'll start worrying about them when she's in her teens. Who knows what the landscape will look like ten, fifteen years from now. I wish summer school were longer for her. She gets a month of half day classes.

 

God bless you and your daughter. 

[Ghost_MH]

5 hours ago, Jwheel86 said:

As early as possible get her on Social Security SSI (then open an ABLE Account, that you could actually do now, it's basically a 529 Savings account, and draft a 3rd Party Special Needs Trust and have your Wills direct her inheritance to the Trust), SSI will get her a small income (she get full Social Security Disability when you retire) and most importantly Medicaid under federal eligibility. With Medicaid you'll want to get her on whatever the developmental disability waiver Mass has, that'll get her Day Supports, Supported Employment, and Direct Support Professionals in your home. Done the road you can look into Group Homes. Some of this stuff she might be eligible for now. Mass currently doesn't have a waiting list, but that can change. 

 

Really do appreciate it. A lot of this stuff is really unintuitive. All my kids have 529 I opened for them the day I got their SS cards. Just opened my daughter an ABLE account and am rolling her 529 over to that as soon as the ink dries. Now to just walk down the rest of your list. Anything that helps, especially with how expensive therapy is. Her neurologist wants her in 15-20hr/wk. It's so fucking expensive. Last year, I blew through my entire family max out of pocket by like mid-February thanks to it.

[Jwheel86]

1 hour ago, Ghost_MH said:

A lot of this stuff is really unintuitive

 

The system was built in the 1960s and has only had bandaide solutions layered on top of other bandaide solutions (such as ABLE and the waiver system). Most important thing, verify everything a caseworker tells you, they'll lie with a smile on their face. 

[TUFKAK]

Unfortunately the existing system isn’t set up to deal with situations like this and the safety of staff in those settings matter too. There’s a far greater need than there are resources and until we as a society invest into a comprehensive healthcare system these situations are going to continue to happen.

 

We just had two more very experienced nurses leave the dept and they both cited workplace violence as major reasons for their resignations.