Cause it's better for them to be free than to be institutionalized.
Posted on 02/05/2015 2:53:23 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Williamsburg, Va. – Kimberlyn Williams feels unsafe in her own home because of her 12-year-old son.
“I am his mother and I do love him, but he`s dangerous,” Williams says.
She says he’s so dangerous that she is prepared to face jail time to keep him out of the house, to not only protect herself, but her two younger children.
“I have been hit, bit, kicked,” she says. “He has threatened to stab children at school, to kill them. He has these outbursts.”
She says her son is now at Riverside Behavioral Health Center in Hampton. He was put there after Williams called police last week because of what she says she witnessed between her son and four-year-old daughter.
“When I went in, I found him exposing himself to her and trying to coerce her to touch him,” Williams says.
Williams says that was the final straw after years of violent and inappropriate behavior, and years of trying to get him the help he needs.
“It`s not a case of us not trying to get him help,” she says. “This is not an isolated incident. It’s been a gauntlet of doctors and medications and diagnoses.”
Her son is set to be released Thursday, but Williams does not want to bring him home.
“If I do not show up to get him, I will face criminal charges or child abandonment,” she says.
Williams says Child Protective Services told her if she refuses to take him, her son would be placed in a 24-hour supervision residential facility — something she’s wanted all along. She says it would take police arresting her to get her wish.
“I want something to get done,” Williams says. “I don`t want it to be you take this one and you risk your other children’s health and safety or you go to jail. There has to be a better way.”
To get her son the help he needs, Williams says she’s prepared to face the consequences.
“Nobody wants to talk about this,” she says. “It`s something we would certainly consider a private family issue, but along those lines maybe it can help other people.”
Neither James City County Police nor CPS will comment
Not many adopters have the resources to spend hundreds of thousands in medical bills (or maybe tens of thousands in a residential group treatment facility for a kid who may actually never get well and may not spend any time in their home bonding with them
But maybe you’d like to offer to adopt a RAD or a psychotic or a schizo or a severe bipolar as the plan for the rest of your life?
Not many adopters have the resources to spend hundreds of thousands in medical bills (or maybe tens of thousands in a residential group treatment facility for a kid who may actually never get well and may not spend any time in their home bonding with them.
But maybe you’d like to offer to adopt a RAD or a psychotic or a schizo or a severe bipolar as the plan for the rest of your life?
I'm a former Foster Parent. I know the pitfalls of that system and that's what I was talking about.
Very true not many adopters can assume the cost of this care. In fact 99% likely couldn't. Just like 99% of the families with a family member this severely troubled couldn't. They need help. It is cheaper for state intervention to get the treatment and an assessment early on. If the kid can be helped then do it. Help for a few years treatment is much cheaper than a lifetime jail cell {the most likely} or c a care facility for life.
Many if not most persons with mental health diagnoses can be helped. One of the biggest hurdles is involuntary treatment. and monitoring someone to make sure they take the needed medications that can allow them considerable more of a life such as a group home with meds supervised. That is still better than permanent lock up. IF the patient is stable enough to be home and family can accommodate that's terrific. Way too many end up as police stats.
A typical foster parent is not trained to handle this and bad things can happen. I'm talking about kids with very violent histories being misplaced by the very agency that is supposed to protect them from abuses.
One nursing home I worked in the one which took in former mental hospital patients got treated in a loving and caring environment. So much so the administrator had a few of them in his will to make certain they got certain special things that he himself out of pocket had provided.
Nursing Homes many times aren't the hell some think either. I have a sibling 5 years my senior with advanced Dementia. For safety and security the sibling is in a nursing home now. I go in unannounced and no set schedule. The CNA and nurses again give patients special attention because they like doing their job. It's a calling of sorts requiring a gift for it. Mickey D's pays more and less stress and risk. My wife is a retired CNA.
I'm a full time caregiver myself to my spouse. I have been for 30 years. In 30 years we've had about a dozen home health visits. I'm the nurse. I wasn't a nurse BTW I was a maintenance mechanic. LOL.
I do believe this though. Those trying to take care of family often need help and they should get it. It's $50K a year cheaper for me being caregiver than a nursing home my wife would qualify for. She a quadriplegic through no fault of her on when she was 35. I'm disabled due to some neurological issues I had to medically retire at about age 36. I'm 57 now.
I've seen kids with almost every disorder you could imagine when I was growing up and spent two years in a Special Education school so I could finally manage to walk a straight line. My dads insurance paid for the therapy. That school thanks to Do Gooders was closed and kids are now mainstreamed so none get the needed help. I saw head injury patients as my wife went through physical rehab. I've been bankrupt once. Thank GOD it was when we still had reasonable laws for it.
The bankruptcy laws now are an abomination especially for medical debts. My wife's insurer canceled on her when she was transferred to rehab calling that a release from care. The same SOB company that has backed Obamacare. We had three months inpatient care owed before we found out she was canceled. At my $4.75 an hour job a $175K plus bill would never be paid off. It wiped us out and even with full debt free bankruptcy took us years to recover because for two years I couldn't leave her alone to go back to work and the kids were too young to help and assume that responsibility which required some training...
Some want to put all of this in one little package saying you're all on your own family can handle it all. My family has paid out a considerable sum for us. Without family help we'd be out of luck because even the state help and SSDI we do get combined doesn't meet our expenses. IOW ben there done that and understand.
I understand very well the difficulty involved in mental health also. My wife was prescribed antidepressants for anxiety and depression. She had an adverse reaction called Serotonin Syndrome and went psychotic for a week. Thanks to the laws I had no say. I've signed for her surgeries, her physical care, everything, but when it came to this the laws said I couldn't. The state stepped in and I had to talk to the state then they ordered the Level One hospital to treat her rather than a transfer to a mental facility. I ended up diagnosing her condition a few days later. Like I said been there seen it done it and understand.
If it’s a medical emergency and it can pass the necessary high standards that need to be in place for “imprisoning” someone ... then get the “medical determination” and get a court of law to order it! But in the financial aspect, the government still can’t be picking up the tab, as that’s exactly what conservatives say can’t keep on happening. And note ... I’ve already answered the aspect on the conservative position on “asking for help” (take a look at that).
“If it’s a medical emergency and it can pass the necessary high standards that need to be in place for “imprisoning” someone ... then get the “medical determination” and get a court of law to order it! But in the financial aspect, the government still can’t be picking up the tab, as that’s exactly what conservatives say can’t keep on happening. And note ... I’ve already answered the aspect on the conservative position on “asking for help” (take a look at that).”
I think you’re just on the wrong side of this. Sorry.
You have one phrase that you keep repeating that is devoid of any reality.
Good luck.
I guess “reality” these days is the “liberal position” of the government stepping in and picking up the tab, from our taxes ... :-) ...
How does your position help the mother in this article, RIGHT NOW? Tell us, specifically, what should she do?! She has a 12 yr old who has already attempted to molest her 4 yr old. WHAT does she do? Chain him outside? Lock him in a closet? Is that acceptable to you, that she go to jail and her other children get fostered, in order to preserve some sort of "conservative" principle you think needs upholding?
Whatcha got?
When we talk about “welfare” here on Free Republic, we’re not just talking about “welfare cheats” but we’re talking about the fact that people are getting this in the first place. It’s the very foundation of the program itself. And that’s what I’m talking about, so it does relate to “welfare” (as in the program itself) and not to “welfare cheats”.
AND ... in relation to a “medical emergency” there are two aspects ... one aspect is whether it is a medical emergency or not. If it was, he would not be released. Since he is being released, it’s not being diagnosed as a medical emergency.
The second aspect is the government system of paying for it. Now, Obamacare is a disaster of a system for getting people’s medical care paid for, who weren’t able to get it before. Before that, there were complaints about people not having medical care, so others came to the party saying that we had to mandate a government system so that people who need medical care can get it.
And here we’re talking about someone you’re describing as needing help because of a medical emergency and that the government needs to step in and cover it. It’s the same argument that the liberals had when they were talking about the government stepping in for all those who were UNABLE to get their medical needs taken care of.
This is simply the same liberal slide that we’ve seen going on for a long time that we continually fight against here on Free Republic.
So, you’re saying that the government must step in when someone can’t figure out what to do? That sure sounds like the old “nanny state” that conservatives argue we must not allow!
And I guess that’s why state mental hospitals have been shutting down all over the place ... over the last few decades.
From everything I’ve seen they were disasters that you never wanted your worst enemy to go to!
This forum consists of PRIMARILY a whole lot of conservatives doing everything they can do to uphold conservative principles all throughout our country.
Cause it's better for them to be free than to be institutionalized.
SO ... what we do is we maintain the conservative principles and position UNTIL we run out of money, or can’t handle it, or any of a number of other things ... AND THEN ... we become LIBERALS ... :-) ...
“And I guess that’s why state mental hospitals have been shutting down all over the place ... over the last few decades.From everything I’ve seen they were disasters that you never wanted your worst enemy to go to!”
The one in Texas is still open MHMR.
That’s the one my son was in for about 3 months until we could find a group home.
Too bad this woman doesn’t live in Texas I guess.
No, I'm asking what YOU, Star Traveler, SPECIFICALLY, would do if you were in the place of this mother, given the information is written.
NOT what "should be", or "could be" -- but what YOU, Star Traveler, would suggest being done, SPECIFICALLY.
I don’t even presume to have the answers for all things, or even some things, contrary to what others say and do. BUT what I DO KNOW is that “not having answers” doesn’t turn me from being a CONSERVATIVE ... into now adopting LIBERAL VALUES! ... :-) ...
Your “position” on being conservative or liberal comes BEFORE having any answers! The answers to specific problems are then worked out through a combination of people applying conservative principles to various problems ... and usually done over a period of time.
ONCE AGAIN ... “having a problem” is not the “cue” for switching values from conservative to LIBERAL!
“No, I’m asking what YOU, Star Traveler, SPECIFICALLY, would do if you were in the place of this mother, given the information is written.NOT what “should be”, or “could be” — but what YOU, Star Traveler, would suggest being done, SPECIFICALLY.”
Good luck getting a real answer as opposed to more one line rhetoric about what conservatism really means and how things should be.
I know enough to know that you can’t ask for governmental institutional and agency involvement in family matters ... and at the same time, tell those governmental agencies and institutions to “stay out of my family” ... :-) ...
Lack of discipline as a young child, especially if there is a mental disorder present. Even true in some animals.If they get by with bad behavior with out being corrected at a young age, it will continue as they get older and bigger in size.
I don’t even presume to have the answers for all things, or even some things, contrary to what others say and do. BUT what I DO KNOW is that “not having answers” doesn’t turn me from being a CONSERVATIVE ... into now adopting LIBERAL VALUES!
Finally! You understand!(???) that "not having answers" doesn't turn ANYone from being a conservative into adopting liberal values -- EVEN those who need some help! It only means they ASK for what they need. SOMEtimes that comes from private organizations. SOMEtimes that comes from governmental organizations. It doesn't mean the "Ask-er" is a freeloader or socialist.
Star is a conservative so he’ d cash in his 401k and spend down his savings and pay $2,000 a day out of pocket to institutionalize his insane kid. Then when his money ran out he’d do the same thing as this mom.
Why isn’t the “combined” line halfway between the other two lines?
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