Back in late October, during a very unstable time for my DD#2, she had punched a window out which ended up in a very long afternoon/night in the ER during Hurricane Sandy getting stitches and searching for a locked facility to put her in. Finally around 3 am, we made the 2 hour trip through the Hurricane to get her admitted into yet another phosp. I never imagined that this would be her home for the next 3 1/2 months.
With help from the phosp staff and other professionals, we were able to find her a possible RTC closer to home for her but she wasn't ready yet for this and we lost her bed. Until she was ready to participate in her own treatment, we would not be able to place her in an RTC. So the search went on trying to find the right place for her. We even looked into an IRTP (Intensive Residential Treatment Placement) but she again did not qualify for this because you have to be commitable, which she was not.
We had meeting after meeting brainstorming what to do with her, because she was deemed "dangerous to society" by the judge back in August and was not allowed to come home until she was stable. If we could not find a placement for her she would have to go into DYS custody, which I was not looking forward to. Everyone knew that she would not get the proper treatment she needed while in DYS custody, so this was a last resort, when all else failed.
After a much needed battle with our school system, they finally agreed to cost share with DMH and place her into a therapeutic RTC and thus began yet another search. The ability to access privately funded RTC opened up the door to 5 possibilities. We heard back from 3 of them within a week and 2 of those had immediate openings, the third would have an opening within 30 days. The interviews and placement visits happened within the course of a week and the final decision was made on which program for her would work out best for her. Within another week, we were before the judge asking permission for her to move into her new program that afternoon. Praise God, permission was granted and we were on our way. After a very stressful day of making sure everything was put into place for her to move into her new school. We finally made it to her new school at 5 pm at night. My DD#2 was so happy to be in her new home and looking forward to settling in and starting school on the following Monday.
It has now been 2 weeks since we moved my DD#2 into her new school and have had nothing but good reports from both the residence staff and the school staff as well as reports from my DD herself. During one of our many phone calls with my DD#2 over the last few months that she has been out of the home, I was floored when she actually said she was doing her homework. I have not seen her do homework in over a year, never mind doing work at school. Granted this is still her "honeymoon" period but I am praying daily that she remains on board with her treatment as well as her school work. Maybe this is a turning point for us all. There is hope that she will come back to us at some point now.
