The stories get even worse
January 18, 2009
This is an excerpt from an email that I received on a listserve that I am on - the sender agreed that I could post it here - to give everyone another idea of how this abuse is going on.
We are going through this with our son. King county DDD system is dumping our kids into places like Navos (West Seattle) which is a psychiatric hospital for adults (mostly homeless) who are having psychotic breaks and are picked up and placed through the court system. The staff at Navos did not know how to deal with him, and thought this was a bad place for him. We had to visit our son through the glass window of his cell for seclusion, covered in feces, urine, and NO HEAT! Did I mention no blankets. How did our son end up there? If 911 is called (in our case his group home manager called 911) your child is picked up by ambulance and sent to Haborview psych ward. Then they either admitted your kid there at Haborview or Children’s Hospitals. If they (the Hospitals) say no we can’t meet the needs of an autistic child (which they did in our case) then they are off in the involuntary placement nightmare and into the King County court system and sent to Navos for a 72 hour hold. Because our son is only seventeen he did get his own room in Navos (when he was not in seclusion for aggression). If your child is 18 then they get to share a room with an adult who they just picked up off the street who the staff may know or not. After a 72 hold your child is then taken by ambulance to Haborview Hall where your child is put in front of a judge who then questions your child. Of course our son cannot talk so the public defender asked the judge to appoint me guardian ad libum (sp?) which she did, and to ask the court for more time until a placement for him could be found. In his case he was sent by ambulance in restraints from Navos to Haborview Hall and when I saw him I had asked the ambulance driver to take off his restraints so I could put on some Neosporin on his open wounds. The public defender was helpful and told me to work the phones, and I did just that. I was trying to get him transferred from court to Fircrest, so that he could receive some long term care to stabilize him. The only one who can admit him to Fircrest is DDD, who refused to have him transferred from court to Fircrest. ( “Navos is a great place Rebecca” ) Which is a weird thing for a caseworker to say since she has never been there. The fact is we knew that he was doing worse and has been since Dec 13, 08 when I first asked our caseworker for help. I was trying to get him into a hospital setting, and possible Fircrest. When I asked our case worker she said Fircrest was closed (it is not) that if there is a problem to call 911 and he will get the best care that way at Children’s or Haborview. The only problem is what if they don’t want your kid or have no beds…well then a private hospital like Navos is the answer. Our son has had two stays at Children’s inpatient psych the latest was in December and they felt that there was nothing more they could do for him, because of his aggressiveness they no longer wanted to treat him and Haborview also said ”NO”. I was trying to get him placed at Fircrest, or another place that had a long tem medical setting, because he was not stabilized before his release at Children’s and he went back to school and his group home way to soon, and he was really too ill to be safe. The only problem was that DDD lied over and over again (saying little gems like: “it is not our problem it is a court problem if 911 is called”) . In fact the official email I got was to wait until he was 18 and they would have a bed at Fircrest. According to Fircrest they had beds available Now and Fircrest felt that he would do better there and they have had a lot of success with treating kids with aggression. The only problem was that DDD no longer wants to place kids there because of their budget shortfalls, and prefer to have our kids put in the court system (even if no one files charges against assaults). Because the child is no longer their “problem”. If our son was eighteen and 911 was called he could have gone to jail. This is the scary part. The official email I got about Fircrest from DDD that a bed would be opening in 3 or 4 weeks. They knew that he would have turned 18 by then, and is responsible for his actions, so he would have ended up in the criminal justice system. Nice. Also, I heard from three different facilities from various staff that they have heard that DDD is aggressively dumping autistic kids into the criminal justice system. This is my nightmare as a parent. And with yelling and screaming at DDD I got him transferred from Navos to Fircrest. At Fircrest they adjusted his medication and is doing just fine (he has been there three days now) . Wow! If DDD is not there to protect your kid why do they exist? If DDD would have given the green light when I asked for it over a month and a half ago there would have been no problem he could have gone there directly from his group home to Fircrest. Instead this is how it looked for us: Children’s Hospital 6 day stay, Haborview 1 day stay, Navos 6 day stay, Fircrest. What kind of treatment for our kids is this? It is less than human.This is what gets me what about the other kids who do not have a mom who can take the time to advocate for their child. I am furious at DDD for being rude, hostile, mimicking me and his court appointed attorney (we were both called stupid). But mostly for not caring for the person whose interest they should be looking out for. Thank-you all for letting me vent, and I would like to know if other had similar problems with DDD, and how did you handle this. Any information so that I can better advocate for my boy is appreciated.
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