NATSAP is a great resource for families struggling with a child who has behavioral, emotional or other mental issues.

Their website is www.natsap.org.

They can assist in find the right program to help the child.   ”Choosing the right place for your child is an important step in getting the help he or she needs. To many parents it appears there are a multitude of options that can seem overwhelming. Others may feel there are no options and don’t know where to turn.

The members of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs offer a variety of different schools and programs. For further definition of the facilities available to you, please go to our NATSAP Program Definitions. 

Our members are located in over 30 states, east to west, north to south. The ages served range from under 12 years old up to 25 years old. Your options will include the age range the school/program serves as well as gender specific or coed.”

A little before 4 am, Monday, May 1^st, 2005, my wife and I were stirred by the headlights in the driveway.  We’d hadn’t slept, anticipating their arrival.  We quietly opened the front door for the private detective and registered nurse we had hired.  Quickly we went upstairs and woke our 15 year old daughter and handed her over to them to escort her to Island View Rehabilitative Treatment Center in Syracuse, Utah.   Though it was warm, she wore a long sleeve sweatshirt and jeans to hide her arms and legs, covered with scars and scabs from relentless self-cutting and clawing.  Her eyes were sunken and complexion plaid from lack of sleep and food, which she denied herself.   Her hair was dyed black, matted and unkempt; her clothes she had worn for days.   She hadn’t bathed in a week.  They were prepared to restrain her, but she went willingly. It seemed that she was relieved it was over.  We hugged her, handed her escorts a backpack we had prepared for her trip and watched them disappear into the darkness of that early morning.  

 Six months earlier, our daughter had been a straight A student, wining the presidential scholars award as she graduated eight grade.   She was a starting defensive back on a U-16 girls travel soccer team, ranked among the top 10 in the state.  But it was a house of cards.   Hammered by depression, which began earlier on in eight grade, She finally gave into it late fall her freshman year of high school.   No longer able to cope, anti-depressants and counseling ineffective, she dropped out of school by that Christmas and we struggled to get her into home-bound, hoping she could finish the year as we tried different doctors, different counselors and different medications.  By March she’d been in and out a short-term psychiatric ward three times, having attempted suicide on several occasions.  There would be no home-bound study.   My wife and I had every sharp instrument and every bottle of medicine under lock and key.  We took turns leaving the house.  And now completely isolated, she focused only on incessant macabre music and gothic dress.   She became increasingly violent, not only to herself but to those in her family.  She physically attacked her mother, her sister and made no qualms about her desire to see us dead.  We were spat on and cursed at regularly.  

 We feverishly began to explore alternatives, knowing we needed help.  Through a educational consultant, referred to us by her therapist, we found Island View RTC.  The reports were stellar and their documented results with troubled teens, miraculous.  We began a dialog with the staff and looking for financial assistance.   Our insurance coverage was meager at best and if used, it would invoke a higher daily rate by Island View.  We made inquiries with the state department of education, and spoke with the high school counselors, the mental health professionals we engaged and an administrator at treatment facility in Northern Virginia.  Nobody seemed to have a clue as to how to proceed.  Hints of Medicaid assistance prompted us to look at the eligibility requirements, which lead us to believe that we wouldn’t be considered.  Not one of those many professionals said the words “Comprehensive Service Act.”   After hours of phone calls and research we threw in the towel and applied for an educational loan to cover the extraordinary cost of the Island View treatment facility.   You can’t put a price on your child’s health and we knew our daughter needed to be at Island View.   We had no choice but to take on the $7,500 a month cost.  

 She stayed for 18 months during which time she was escorted back twice for refusing to return after a home visit and running away from the Dulles airport, surfacing two days later in downtown DC.  In August 2006 we transferred her to Auldern Academy, a therapeutic boarding school in Siler City, North Carolina.  There was some financial relief, as Auldern was only $4,500 a month.   Our daughter thrived there, graduating Val Victorian in May 2008 but not without another short stay in a hospital because she went off her medication and became suicidal once more..    

 She is currently attending Lynchburg College and is still on medication for depression, and may be for some time. The prognosis is good but the depression will always be a concern.   

 Unfortunately, these parent’s story is not unique, but it has a happy ending.  There many more stories that don’t.  “Depression is believed to occur in approximately one in seven children.  More than 70 percent of these children or teens do not receive the necessary diagnosis and treatment. 

  A recent report exploring youth risk behaviors from the Centers for Disease Control revealed these statistics: 28.5 percent of all teenagers nationwide felt so sad or hopeless almost daily for more than two weeks they stopped their daily routine; 16.9 percent seriously considered suicide; 13 percent made a suicide plan; and 8.4 percent had actually attempted suicide within the 12 months preceding the survey.

 How do some teens handle depression or anxiety that goes undiagnosed?  They often turn to drugs or alcohol to “numb their pain.”  The CDC report provides disturbing statistics on drug and alcohol use among our young people: 43.3 percent of all high school students had had at least one drink in the last 30 days (prior to the survey), and 25 percent had engaged in episodic heavy drinking.  Furthermore, from 2 to 8.5 percent of high school students had admitted experimenting with drugs and had tried one of the following drugs at least once: cocaine, injected drugs, inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, methamphetamine, and ecstasy.

 A teen’s method of coping with depression, in addition may be to withdraw, become angry and resentful, or to become destructive to self or others.  Eating disorders may also be seen in depressed teens: The CDC reports that 6.3 percent of youths take diet pills and 4.3 percent vomit or take laxatives. Teens may also turn to self-mutilation like cutting or burning as a way to control the pain in their lives.

 Some teens, like adults, cope with depression by working.  Instead of withdrawing into their bedrooms, video games or televisions, they may become overachievers in school or athletics.  Just like alcoholism, workaholism is a method of avoiding despair and sadness. 

 Unfortunately, adolescents are likely to be even less informed than adults about depression.  Teens are even more vulnerable to falling between the cracks when it comes to diagnosis and treatment

 Once a diagnosis of major depression is made, it is important to determine the severity of the depression and to look for co-existing problems like substance abuse, anxiety, or attention deficit disorder.  These conditions often require referral of the patient and family to health professionals with experience treating adolescents and children.   Some data indicates that patients who are also in therapy tolerate their medications with fewer side effects.  Getting the correct diagnosis, getting the right combination of medication and counseling started, and  achieving remission of symptoms are critical.  As parents, our role is to help our adolescents maintain good communication with their health care providers, to look for opportunities to reduce the stresses they face, to help watch for signs of recurrent depression during and following treatment, and to be their best advocates at home and in the health care system.” (Excerpts from an article by Susanna Wu-Pong, Ph.D., I1l1d David Wu-Pong,M.D. All About Kids Magazine, June 2008)

 As we help our children prepare to face this daunting world, we must also be ready to catch them when they fall, providing the resources, both private and public, to reclaim them.  We  need to focus on assisting families financially to achieve this end because without proper care and facilities, these children might never finish high school let alone go on to college.  

 These privately run programs are very expensive.  Insurance coverage, if available, is limited at best.  For families, the alternative is to turn control of their child over to the system, which usually won’t happen until there is cause.  Because they cannot financially provide the treatment their child requires, they are doomed to watch helplessly as their child becomes institutionalized, imprisoned, or worse, lose their life to suicide or drugs.  Children who could otherwise lead productive successful lives are lost each year.    

 On the pure educational front, the foundation’s mission is to provide a single source of credible educational information, effective resources and pro-active assistance to families to help them provide their children the necessary tools to be successful academically and socially.  The result then, when reaching the college application years, they can compete effectively for admissions and financial assistance. 

 Children are faced with academic and social challenges at a progressively younger age in order to be successful.  The major challenge in preparing a child to lead a successful and productive life is not finding information.  As a culture, we’re drowning in it.  The challenge is rather how to process it.  The family must be able to manage that information, bring a focus to it and make it meaningful to their student.  They must be able to use that information to make good educational and financial decisions.     

 The family must be able to control the process and not let the system take its own course.  There are too many variables and not enough effective communication between families and our educational institutions and governmental agencies.     

 This early pressure on our children to cope academically, socially and sexually at levels they are not emotionally mature enough to handle, as a triggering process, has contributed to the increase in teen depression and it’s associated manifestations of  suicide or self-harm, self-medication through drug or alcohol abuse, and eating disorders. 

 We must be able to provide for all young people who stumble along the way, the ability to access professional intervention — all young people, not just those whose families are wealthy or are  otherwise financially able to access private care.  We must salvage all children and the tremendous potential they represent.

At least two – and, in all but a handful of states, three – forms of court-ordered treatment are authorized by state law. States use different names to describe each form of treatment.

• Emergency hospitalization for evaluation (sometimes called “psychiatric hold” or “pick-up”) in a treatment facility for psychiatric evaluation; typically short intervention of fixed duration (e.g., 72 hours).
• Civil commitment – inpatient. Also labeled differently in different states, civil commitment is a process whereby a judge orders a person with symptoms of mental illness who meets the state’s legal criteria to be held in a hospital beyond the emergency detention period. Civil commitment exists in all states, but the standards that must be met for it to occur vary from state to state. It is essential to know the standards for civil commitment in your own state.
• Civil commitment – outpatient. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), which also goes by different names in different states (e.g., outpatient commitment or mandated outpatient treatment), is a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with symptoms of mental illness to adhere to a mental health treatment plan while living in the community. AOT laws have been passed in 44 states, but the standards for ordering it vary from state to state. It is essential to know the standards for court-ordered outpatient treatment in your own state. ”

State-by-state information about each form of civil commitment laws, standards and procedures may be found at:  http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/get-help/know-the-laws-in-your-state

Margaret Nimmo Crowe spoke to the Children, Youth, and Families Working Group of Washington Grantmakers on April 6, 2011, to explain the complexities of accessing child mental health services in Virginia.  Watch a brief video in which she outlines suggestions that she and the speakers from the District and Maryland made about priority funding areas for Washington-area foundations. The Consumer Health Foundation, a member of the Working Group, helps fund the Campaign for Children’s Mental Health.Margaret Nimmo Crowe speaks

http://1in5kids.org/

Remember: It is a myth that people who threaten to kill themselves don’t do it.   

• ASSUME that any suicide threat is serious and treat it as a danger to the person’s life. A previous suicide attempt increases the likelihood that the person will act on the threat.
• ASK the person in a calm, quiet setting whether he/she is thinking about suicide. Your questions can be indirect (“Do you ever think you should never have been born?”) or direct (“Do you feel like you want to die?”)
• FOLLOW UP if the answer to these general questions is “Yes” and ask about specific suicide plans. When does the person plan to commit suicide? How? Has the person already acquired the means, e.g., pills, gun, etc.
• DETERMINE the imminence of the danger based on the answers to these questions. A college freshman who describes a suicide plan for graduation day in four years is probably not in imminent danger. A college senior who is graduating the next day is. Act accordingly. 
• CONTACT the person’s mental health or medical providers and repeat exactly what the person has told you.
• HIDE all vehicle keys and any means that could be used for self-harm, e.g., medications (including over-the-counter drugs), knives including kitchen knives, guns, ropes. 
• KEEP the person sober. Suicide completers have high rates of positive blood alcohol. Intoxicated people are more likely to attempt suicide using more lethal methods. Be aware that the combination of alcohol and Tylenol can be lethal. Be sure there is no Tylenol available if the person is drinking.
• DO YOUR BEST to persuade the person to get help voluntarily. Dial the hot-line number, drive to the clinic, take a taxi to the ER. Do whatever is necessary to make getting help easy. 

Call 911.

Thanks to the Treatment Advocacy Center for this information.

May 3^rd was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, and to mark the occasion, Voices for Virginia’s Children and The Campaign for Children’s Mental Health released a new publication - Children’s Mental Health in Virginia: System Deficiencies and Unknown Outcomes .  The report took a holistic view of the data available and examined how children who face serious mental and emotional problems fare in Virginia. 

Voices’ summary of the findings include:

• While some Virginia communities offer kids the comprehensive mental health services they need and deserve, many more do not.
• Across the state, shortages of services mean many kids have long waits for the community-based treatments they need, if the treatments are available at all. 

The recommendations that the report offers were: comprehensive system reform which will result in increased availability of community based services for kids.  You can acces the entire report here .

Over the past two weekends Beacon Tree Foundation awarded scholarships to a graduating senior from Auldern Academy in Siler City North Carolina and Northstar Academy in Richmond, Virginia.  Later this month a scholarship will be awarded at The Family Foundation School in Hancock, New York.   

Each year Beacon Tree Foundation awards five four-year scholarships to high school seniors who are graduating from special therapeutic schools, having successfully overcome their mental or emotional issues and are going on to college.   

Beacon Tree Foundation, as its name implies, is to be a guiding light to nurture growth.  It is our vision to be able to offer grant money to families to keep their children in special programs when they can’t handle it financially, to establish a loan program to offer low-interest K-12 loans to families to finance such programs, and to expand our scholarship program to provide more and larger awards.

“You can’t put a price on your child’s health.”   It’s easily said and almost everyone agrees with the statement, but for many families faced with the daunting cost of residential treatment facilities or therapeutic boarding schools, for their at-risk teenager, the words ring hallow because they don’t have the financial resources or credit ability to back them up.  

 The cost of a residential treatment facility for a high school student is over $80,000 a year and therapeutic boarding schools cost more than a year of college at the most prestigious institution.  On the lower end of the financial spectrum is simple medication and out-patience therapy, a burden still, for low-income families. 

 Insurance pays little if at all and most government programs are extremely underfunded and focused on dealing with those youth that come through the system as an offender or ward. 

 Many families are left with no choice but to watch helplessly as their child implodes due to depression or other mental illness, and takes the family down as well.  The future for so many children is the street, jail, or suicide.  One in five children is suffering from some form of depression or mental illness.   And they put others at risk as well.  According to the CDC, over 70 percent of our young people between the ages of 10 and 22 who lose their lives each year do so as  result of unsafe behavior directly or indirectly associated with depression or other mental illness.  The child that is killed in an automobile accident because the driver was drinking to self-medicate is an example.  How many lost their lives at Virginia Tech due to the metal illness of one student who didn’t get the help he needed?

 Beacon Tree Foundation was formed to address this issue head-on – with students, with parents, with educators and government officials; and through financial assistance for families struggling with an at-risk child.

How real is the problem of youth suicide?  Here are the numbers:

• EVERY YEAR there are approximately 10 youth suicides for every 100,000 youth.
• EVERY DAY there are approximately 11 youth suicides.
• EVERY 2 HOURS AND 11 MINUTES a person under the age of 25 completes suicide
• Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teens.
• Suicide is second leading cause of death in colleges.
• For every suicide completion, there are between 50 and 200 attempts.
• CDC Youth Risk Survey: 8.5% of students in grades 9-12 reported a suicide attempt in the past year.
• 25% of high-school students report suicide ideation.
• The suicide attempt rate is increasing for youths ages 10-14.
• Suicide had the same risk and protective factors as other problem behaviors, such as drugs, violence, and risky sexual activities.
• While a single suicide is a tragedy, it is estimated that for every adolescent who completes suicide, there are between 50 and 200 suicide attempts.
• A recent survey of high-school students found that almost 1 in 5 had seriously considered suicide; more than 1 in 6 had made plans to attempt suicide; and more than 1 in 12 had made a suicide attempt in the past year.

Mary Dunne Stewart, Policy Dirctor for Voices for Virginia’s Children writes:

The House and Senate conferees have been named, so now is the time to contact them about children’s mental health issues. Or goal is to get 200 emails to the conferees on our issue. Will you help?

We actually have three issues to bring to their attention:

• The most critical need right now is to express opposition to the House’s proposal to shift all children eligible for Medicaid mental health rehabilitation services into CSA. The House is cutting $21.6 million from the Medicaid budget by shifting the cost and responsibility for these services to local governments.

What does this mean for kids? Any child needing these services (which include crisis intervention, intensive in-home, therapeutic day treatment, group homes and residential care) will have to go through the CSA’s family assessment and planning team process. This will cause significant delays in accessing services in a system that is already strained. Plus, the HUGE budget reduction means that fewer children will be able to access the mental health treatment they need.

• We also want to ask the conferees to support the Senate’s restoration of $7.5 million to CSA to fund therapeutic foster care as a community-based service for children.
• And we want to thank both the House and Senate for restoring the governor’s proposed elimination of all non-mandated services in CSA ($5 million).

Click here to email the budget conferees today about these issues! We have drafted a letter- please personalize it based on your own experience.

Here are the budget conferees:

House:

Lacey Putney (I-Bedford), Chris Jones (R-Suffolk), Steve Landes (R-Augusta), Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), Beverly Sherwood (R-Frederick), Johnny S. Joannou (D-Portsmouth)

Senate:

Chuck Colgan (D-Prince William), R. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania), Richard Saslaw, (D-Fairfax), Janet Howell (D-Fairfax), William Wampler (R-Bristol), Walter Stosch (R-Henrico)

Thank you!

Beacon Tree Foundation is a member of a steering committee comprised of a group of mental health organizations and professional in the Richmond Metro area who have developed a gateway, both physical and virtual, for families to access the mental health community, receiving appropriate guidance, information and resources to best help their children without the frustration of trying to navigate the system themselves.  It will be a great model for other municipalities.    The open house for the facility is March 10th. 

About the center

The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center (CMHRC) is a collaborative effort dedicated to advancing a more accessible and effective mental health system for children and their families in Virginia.  CMHRC will serve as a comprehensive resource for families of children affected by mental, emotional or behavioral disorders, as well as professionals who serve this population.  Administrative oversight for CMHRC is provided by the Virginia Treatment Center for Children (VTCC) in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. 

 Mission

• To serve as the community’s go-to resource for accurate, essential information on children’s mental health and evidence-based practices.
•  To provide parents, professionals and other interested individuals with the assistance and support they need to navigate the complex child mental health system and access appropriate services.
•  To play a leadership role in bringing together key stakeholders interested in improving and developing the child mental health system in Virginia.
•  To provide limited services, including assessment and support, when these resources are not available in the community.

 Goals

Education

Provide information and materials that will promote greater understanding of the causes, diagnosis and appropriate treatment of children’s mental health problems through print and web-based media, educational forums, and consultation and technical assistance for providers.

 Resources

Establish a referral database of mental health care providers who meet the Center’s quality criteria.  Link individuals to appropriate resources, including advocacy, services (e.g., assessment, treatment, child and family support, and education) and financial and other resources.

 System Improvement and Development

Provide education to families, practitioners and policy makers on the needs and strengths of the child mental health service system, as well as evidence-based practices that should be made available.  Advocate and work collaboratively with other stakeholders for additional resources for children’s mental health.

 Location

The center os conveniently located in thecommunity.  Printed materials and access to web-based resources are available at this site, as well as meeting space.  Other functions, such as core assessment and support services, may be located at satellite sites or provided on a mobile basis.  CMHRC is accessible by public transportation and has sufficient parking.

Funding

Support for CMHRC will come from a variety of sources, including private donors, foundations, local and state government, and revenue from fee-based services.