These are the actual questions my husband and I drafted to ask the Social Worker and other DCF Staff while we were preparing to meet and argue against sending our son to High Meadows. We wanted him to go to The Devereaux-Glenholme School, because it was the most appropriate placement for him at the time. We actually had to hire an attorney to get this accomplished. Both the attorney, John R. Williams, of New Haven, CT, and the school exceeded our expectations on every level. The efforts we, and our attorney went to were well worth the effort. The Devereaux-Glenholme School is a FANTASTIC facility, and was one of the few placements that truly benefitted our son. We will never be able to thank them enough for what they did for our son. Our attorney was (and still is) absolutely the finest there is in CT. I could never recommend him highly enough.

Here are the actual questions we drafted. Individual names have been changed:

Questions for Hearing with DCF

1. Why will you not let our son have an interview at Devereaux-Glenholme?

2. Have you lost your perspective regarding the interest of our son?

3. Can you really say that you are unbiased when it comes to the administration of our son’s case?

4. Why did you cancel his benefits and stop paying the hospital bill?

5. Don’t you have to go before a Probate judge before canceling our son’s benefits?

6. How many times have you visited our son in the last 2 years? (either at home or in a facility).

7. Are actively involved parents NOT allowed to actively participate in the decision-making process of the case management of their child? If so — why not? If yes — then why were we not allowed to?

8. Why did you initially state that our son should go to Foster Care?

9. Why would you not want our son to receive proper medical care by a QUALIFIED psychiatrist who is TRAINED in childhood bipolar disorders and their treatment?

10. Why would you insist on placing our son in a culturally maladaptive environment? Do you wish him harmed?

11. Isn’t your mission to get children like our son the PROPER help and treatment — not just “any old treatment” that may cost you less?

12. Are any of you trained in the diagnosis and treatment of childhood bipolar? Do any of you have active and recent experience with the ongoing treatment of these children? If so — please document it for us.

13. Why can’t we have a list of any and all physicians and/or staff who would be caregivers and treatment providers for James at High Meadows — this is a State owned/operated hospital — I thought that information was able to be reviewed by the public.

14. Why can’t we see written documentation regarding the program outlines and treatment plans at High Meadows?

15. I would like a list of all staff that would have interaction with our son at High Meadows, so I can check for competency, complaints, etc.

16. I would like to speak with the treating physician(s) to interview them on their expertise of dealing with adolescents with a cluster diagnosis of Bipolar 1, (mixed episodes), PTSD, and OCD. I want to know what the treatment program is — in detail — before our son would go anywhere — this includes Devereaux-Glenholme (and they are prepared to do that as well as have us interview children at random to really get a feel for their program).

17. Why was I told that I would have to divorce my husband in order to get my child back?

As you can see, these questions illustrate the shocking nature of what we, as loving parents, were put through as we were told that DCF was only looking out for the best interests of our son.

Comments and replies are welcome.