As most things that involve Sweetie, we have hit lots of hurdles getting her into PRTF in Asheville, NC. The good thing is I have become an expert hurdle jumper. She was hospitalized 15 days this time. The mental health system is severely flawed. There is a complete shortage of facilities for teenage girls. Even though we started the process of getting Sweetie placed into the PRTF before she was hospitalized, they will not have a spot available in the cottage that is appropriate for her until August 5th. This past Wednesday the hospital called me and said they were discharging Sweetie. They agreed with me that she shouldn't come home because she would not be safe here, but she couldn't stay there. I refused to bring her home and they threatened to contact DSS. I called their bluff and I was able to get Sweetie's stay extended while we looked for an interim placement. This resulted with me ending up in a court hearing Friday am. We had found a group home, but the insurance company could take up to authorize the placement. Unfortunately, the judge was unable to legally find any reason to keep her but what he did do is call the insurance and told them they had to process the approval by the end of the day. Even though he could not court order and approval the call worked and we finally got the approval at 4:50pm on Friday afternoon. Nothing like cutting it close, they closed at 5:00 for the weekend. So at 9:00 pm we were dropping her off at the group home.
I had never seen a group home before. I am not sure what I was thinking, But I was shocked when I pulled up to this beaten little ranch house about an hour away from my house. We brought her inside and we were quickly directed to her room. She gets a room all to herself. I had a good chuckle because the room had large patched parts to the walls. They were not even painted. I just said "Hey baby, look, whoever was in this room had the same issues as you". I was told that she would not be able to contact us for 30 days. But then I received 2 calls within 3 days asking for me to buy her things and also asking if she could sell her stuff. I am so glad she will only be there 2 weeks. They love her there and view her as a stable sweet girl. They do not know the first thing about RAD. They do not know that she is a master manipulator and thrives on situations where she can triangulate.
Sweetie's therapist has been Amazing! She has worked so hard to make everything happen. Many nights working from home during her personal time. She took time off to come to court to speak on our behalf. She is one of the very few people in the mental health field that truly cares! There need to be more people like her. So as of right now. Authorization goes in for the PRTF tomorrow am. We could not send it earlier because it has to be done within 14 days of the admission. If the authorization went through quickly, it would expire before she was admitted. But now we are back to the same potential 14 days to approve. It is such a crazy system.
In the middle of all of this chaos, I received communication from a root canal specialist I interviewed with last year and he offered me a job. The hours are significantly less, which is awesome. I accepted.
There have been so many changes going on lately. It is time to start a new journey. I am hoping that this will be a fresh start for me and also for Sweetie.
We are still working towards getting Sweetie into the special program in Missouri.
I continue to try get her the help she needs.
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