My son's depression/anxiety continues to be about as debilitating as it can be. He has not been attending school and spends each and every day in bed. He is a little better than around 6 weeks ago when he was threatening to end it all and seems a little more engaged and lighter in his mood. He's also had a change in medications and has tolerated it well. He is now completely off the old antidepressant and only on a minimal dose of the new one which will be reviewed in three weeks and adjusted accordingly.
Meanwhile I've been busy trying to activate our next plan of action. His current school is in the process of initiating an access request form to get him into a special purpose school specifically for students with emotional disorders and mental health issues. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get into this school as there are only 45 places.
Additionally our private psychologist and psychiatrist have initiated another avenue via referral which offers a residential care/school program. We have been given an appointment for 2/11 for an initial intake assessment which will be conducted by a team of clinicians and takes 3 hours. Today I received a bundle of forms to complete for this. A detailed 10 page assessment questionnaire which covers absolutely everything from birth to now, a child behaviour checklist which contains over 120 questions, a youth self-report and CES-DC Scale for my son to complete, registration form, and a bundle of NSW Govt. Information sheets pertaining to mental health. Last but not least was an information sheet for families which is dedicated to carers and outlines our rights, responsibilities support options, etc.
This is the very first time in over 3 years of struggling with my son that I have ever received any information that clearly outlines a carers role and provides key phone numbers and websites (including SANE).
Just going over the child behaviour checklist has highlighted how bad he really is - sport = nil, friends = nil, exercise = nil, school = nil, etc. I'm happy that we have some direction again and am hoping that he finally gets the support he needs.
As a noteworthy comparison - when he was admitted into a private young person's mental health unit I received no such information. This current facility is a Govt. facility. And I always believed private was better than public!!
Janna ❤️
PS My 21 year old daughter had her first psychotherapy session this week for her emotional difficulties, including anxeity, so its officially all in the family now. 25+ years of living with an abusive and personality disordered individual has us all in therapy and the one who needs it most is coasting around in life like nothing is wrong!! Argh.
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