Decision Made

It turns out that there is only one facility in the area that has a psychiatric unit for teenagers, and it is full. We thought there was another, but it only takes children under 12.

It is also the place where Frankie went and "never came back." Being told that that was the alternative to deescalating is what brought him down both Tuesday and last night. So maybe it is good that it is full. His state worker will be coming to pick him up "hopefully by the end of the week" and take him back to The Town From Whence He Came, probably back to the same group home.

So...if Frankie is still under his own control at all, this news will placate him. We will be able to have a couple of days to make a scrap book, load whatever music he wants onto his MP3 player, help him pack and generally have a civilized parting.

If he is cycling into a psychotic episode and becomes dangerous then we are to either call the police and have them take him to JD or take him to the hospital and insist on a 72 hour psych hold. I'm 80% confident that he will chill when he knows he is getting what he has been insisting upon, but part of me is afraid that he is outside his own control.

At best it will be a sad and difficult couple of days. He does not have any understanding of how his actions affect others. At best, he will talk happily about leaving and not notice how much that hurts Brian's feelings, which it will.

I don't know what set him off...but from my perspective this has been building for a couple of weeks. I would date it from the attempt to lower one of his medications, but I don't think the issue is as simple as, "They lowered his medication and that threw his mood disorder out of whack" although it could be. AidelMaidel does a good job of listing stressors and triggers he has gone through the past week.

I don't know. And at the moment it doesn't seem important. It happened. He's leaving. I'm sad.