Assisted Living
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Assisted Living
| Fri, 06-10-2005 - 9:46am |
I don't know if this is the route to take yet, but I need to find an assisted living arrangement for my 20 year old son who is just beyond my help. I am willing to relocate anywhere where I know he will get the proper treatment. Florida is not the place to get the proper help for him.
Any help would be appreciated,
Nancy

Hi Nancy and welcome!
Keli,
I am having problems with everything. It took me years to get the right diagnosis, and then we got the right diagnosis only because my son happened to end up in the hospital. He is now 20 and pretty much out of my control. The doctor is only good for 15 minutes every 6 weeks (long enough to write scripts for his meds and labs) and their is only voluntary living arrangement and mostly for abuse situations (drugs and alcohol). While I know it can take years to get the right dosage of meds, I am the one who continues to do research and ask questions to try new meds and counseling. I get no help from my husband or family. This has been and is all on me. He is not retarded so I can't go that route. One suggestion is when he is "off the wall" too call the police so he can have a record and then a judge can place him. Well, I feel that is absurd and I don't want him to have a police record because he is mentally ill and needs help. He is bigger and stronger than me and has a complex about me (must be with me constantly, touching me, kissing and hugging me). He is exhausting me and I must leave soon or lose my sanity. I don't want to leave my husband or my sons but the goal I had for him and (he had for himself) was to graduate from high school which he did this past weekend and now he's supposed to start a vocational rehab program and while that is great it still won't alleviate the tension in my home.
Nancy,
Because your son is 20, there is a real limit to what you can do for him without his cooperation--the laws meant to protect the rights of the mentally ill also prevent people from helping those who really need help, but don't recognize they do .