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> >From: " Louis Harkins " <louisharkins_4@...>

> >>Far too often it seems that the agencies which should be advocating

> >for our children are bogged down in red tape and politics.

>

Yes, and lots of very huge egos! Dealing with workers who take offense if

you are to do something as 'presumptuous' as download something from the

internet, because " we know ALL about that " is the norm. So when checks this

out, one finds that the staff has had no training in the past 5 years when

it seems that so much has been learned, etc.

> I'll second that Louis!! I am having such a block at work and accessing

> services for my kids. The red tape is often not in the best interest of the

> people concerned. Tom is a great example - with us giving up costudy in

> order to access service.>>

I gave up custody to get help (because she was abusing others and myself).

And the county decided that even though the children's hospital had seen

obvious evidence, and put her on not one but two medications, because their

own social worker decided that she didn't see it, that she no longer has

those conditions. But they are still making her take " anger management " , etc.

The foster mother was not going to even TELL the county that she had found

marijuana (my daughter's attempts to self medicate. So she took a drug

class and now believes that her lifelong patterns of ADHD and OCD are

because of drugs (thus ruling out the first 14 years entirely). Oh yes, she

was picked up for shoplifting AGAIN, as well, while in foster care.

I will have to move to a county with actual care for the child and more

literacy on the subject. They will have to send her to where I go. It's

hard because I must now use a wheelchair. Some of that has been made worse

by her out of control behavior. There is no help for that for her either

because Adult Protection does not believe it is supposed to care for those

who are not in Nursing Homes.

Red Tape, Custody...it is good to know that one is not alone. But it seems

like a living nightmare.

We are in California and I am seeking places with actual services for OCD.

Seems to me that if OCD changes the brain as much or more than drugs alone,

that someone should at least be telling her " Honey, it's not the end of the

world, your brain just works this way, and the meds help it connect

better.. " or " If we understand what our bodies are doing it's easier to see

it's not us, but biology...etc " But no one talks to her. It's a very very

very bad county here for all kinds of disabilities.

So, if you were to tell a parent where to go or not go in CA, could you

send it our way, via email of course.

thanks

sara smith