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« on: Jan 04, 2013, 11:02:56 am »
Something smells fishy here..........by law, a psychiatrist canNOT prescribe a med (especially if it's a controlled substance) without a diagnosis. He HAD to code the appt. with a diagnosis in order to submit it to insurance. And I'm not too sure I would trust this doc if that's what he's telling you.
I can see the writing on the wall with your SS, as I had similar (tho not as severe) issues with DS. First with schooling. I'm not sure how the school can provide 'additional help' for a student without getting a formal diagnosis and doing an IEP (individualized education plan). If he gets a diagnosis that warrants an IEP (sometimes it depends on the diagnosis as to what kind of help they are entitled to), then much more help should be available to him, because the school would be able to get more money from the state to cover it. Without it, all they can give him is cursory help, which I seriously doubt would work in his situation.
He needs to be seen by a pediatric psychologist, one who specializes in childhood behavior and is properly trained and educated in how to deal with them. A general psychiatrist will not have this specialized training. Now, psychologists cannot prescribe meds, but they CAN make a med recommendation, which can be given to the primary care provider to write. We did this for 10 years with DS and it worked perfectly. Plus, I had the added benefit of knowing that any changes to his meds were based on recommendations of a specialist, not a family doc who was guessing.
At one point, DS's psychologist recommended residential treatment. Forewarning: it is INCREDIBLY expensive unless you can some way miraculously get it covered by insurance or get a student loan for it. I sent DS to a wilderness therapy treatment program for 2 months in Oregon....at the cost of $25,000 only to find out that it wasn't the kind of treatment he needed. Shortly after that, he got in trouble with the law, was evaluated in juvenile detention as needing residential treatment (Duh!), and sent to a facility until his 18th birthday (which was only for 6 months, tho he needed a year). I told his probation officer that if I had known what it would take to get him the help he needed, I would have told him to break the law a whole lot earlier....she didn't bat an eye because she knew I was telling the truth.
This kid is CRYING out for help. He needs a thorough evaluation with a specialist and any recommendations made MUST be followed through with, or it will just be a waste of everyone's time. If you need assistance in getting some recommendations done, ask for help, whether that be through the specialist he's seeing, the school (if they can provide it competantly), or the state. It may also require requests to the court regarding legal custody...if the BM refuses to follow any recommendations, enlist the help of whatever specialist making the recommendation to impress on the court that this child will be in big trouble if the recommendations are not followed and the only hope of that happening is if the father has complete legal custody and possible physical, too.
I mentioned writing on the wall....not to be a 'doomsdayer', but if this child doesn't get some intense help really soon, he may be lost for good. He's only hit the tip of the iceberg and I would venture to say that there might be other illegal activity going on that you don't know about...he just hasn't been caught yet. And you don't have much time, either. I wish you the best, but I see this as a situation where the BM has done a really great job of f***ing up a child. You have more time with the younger one, but not by much.....but you may have to do the same thing with him, too.
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