I called our son’s Case Worker at Rushford Behavioral Center today to share the great news of us going home, and while she was very excited and happy, there were a few things she had to check on. This is what I told her I would like to have done before we get home, so that this transition would be as smooth as possible for our son:
1. Have a medication assessment appointment and therapy appointment this first week we are back, since our son has gone without these critical therapeutic components for the last three and a half months.
2. I had already made the appointment with the group home to take place in the first week we get home, so that was already done, but to gather any paperwork needed for that to go smoothly as well.
3. I counted our son’s pills that were remaining, and realized that he will be short by several days, so I requested a 2 week prescription to be called in at out pharmacy in CT, so my husband can pick it up and overnight it to us in NC. We had come so far, that we could not have our son go without medications for even one day!
I wanted to get everything coordinated and in place before we got home, so I wouldn’t have to run around at the last minute to get these basics in place.
When our son’s Case Worker called me back, she said she had some bad news. My head began to pound instantly, and I felt sick to my stomach while I waited to hear the news. She told me that Rushford had closed our son’s case down as soon as we left for NC on September 30th, and that he now would have to go through the complete intake process again when he gets back home. The earliest time he could do that would be in early February! Then she informed me that because our son’s case was closed out, that they would not be able to call in anymore prescriptions until he had gone through the entire intake process again!
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I felt like we were being punished for doing the right thing by protecting our son until he had benefits and an appropriate placement! Why weren’t we being rewarded for this? Everything was WRONG with what I was hearing! I was so angry and frustrated! Here we are with one and a half weeks to go to get home, and these people at Rushford won’t even call in a two week prescription — and they NEVER told our son that he had been closed out after we left! And we have to deal with these people for the foreseeable future — these are the people who will be managing my son’s mental illness requirements! I am OUTRAGED!!!
So, after the case worker went to talk to her superiors, she did arrange to have the intake done on the 15th of January, as opposed to February. She also told me that if I take our son to our local hospital here in NC, that we could take his prescription bottles and they would right a two-week prescription for us to get home with. So, I called the Emergency Room, and after several long holds, a woman came back tot he phone and told me that our son would have to have a psychiatric evaluation before he could get exactly enough pills to get us home to CT — not even 2 week’s worth to cover the extra days before he sees someone in CT! Who is going to pay for this? I don’t have it — and then I asked if we had to wait like everyone else in the ER, and the woman said yes, we would have to wait, and it could be an all day or all night wait.
So, I called our son’s attorney, Sally Zanger, who is fabulous, and left her a voicemail about what had happened and asked her what we should do. Then I left a voicemail for Mr. Jeffrey Walter, the Director of Rushford Behavioral Center, and explained the current situation and asked him to please have the APRN call in a prescription for two weeks, so that our son would have his medication without any break. I also let him know that I could not understand why our son’s case was closed at Rushford or why he had to go through a completely new intake process, which also means he will start over again with a new therapist (and he really liked the one he had been seeing), which will be traumatic for him.
I hope to hear from both of them tomorrow. I cannot understand why this is happening to our son and family!!! All we have tried to do is the right thing, and to protect our son and get him the benefits and placement he so desperately needs — and all we have seen is what feels like punishment after punishment for every sacrifice and effort we have put forth!
Even at the last minute — they have to make this as difficult and stressful as possible — it looks like to me that they are putting up every conceivable barrier to our son getting the help he needs and is ENTITLED TO!
I am too upset to continue, but will update as things unfold.
