[hopetobedad]

If your child needs intensive treatment how do you get your child into a RTC?

[lucyjoy]

State laws vary as to how this works. Some states allow the parents to retain custody and all rights. Some allow parents to keep some rights and charge them child support. Some states require you to reliquish custody to the state if you can't afford an RTC.

In our case, with son #1 that needed RTC, our therapist drove him to the acute care psych hospital because he was openly homicidal. I then called the state subsidy worker who arranged for an 30 day in patient evaluation. I then had to find facilities that were willing to take him(29 said NO WAY). He then went to long term residential the first time.

Son number 2 went to the psych hospital, I called and they gave me a list of facilities to call. Son came home from the psych hospital openly homicidal and we took him to hospital #2 and thankfully, found a facility to accept him.

Both kids subsidy agreements contained a provision for residential as the potential was there for them to need it from day 1.

[Perfect7]

We've been dealing with this lately ourselves. Our child's therapist gave us the number to the "Crisis hotline" in our State, which is the procedure we had to follow. The hotline then scheduled us an appointment with a "core provider" who did the assessment and sent the application off to the State for Medicaid approval. We also had a list of facilities that said "no way" on accepting our son and one who did. Then Medicaid denied us so we are appealing and reapplying.
However, our kiddo wasn't an immediate danger to anyone or himself. We just have to watch him around the dogs and our youngest son or he will molest them. If he would have been, we would have taken him to an ER for an evaluation and admittance to a "stabilization center" at a hospital until he could get into residential.
Nobody has said anything yet to us about signing over our rights to the facility, but we haven't gotten that far yet. Unfortunately, we didn't have any provisions for an RTC in our subsidy because had we seen this in our future, our son wouldn't have come here.
We had to take our son's IEP, notes from his therapist and teachers at school, and a journal I had kept to the "core provider" for the assessment. Good luck! It's turning into a long road for us.

[aMarylandfamily]

This is not turned over to the facility but to dhs or cps depending on the agencies in your area ... you can turn over "care" or "care and custody" and retain legal rights until that is no longer possible. During the stay at RTC - which often can run 18-24 months - your subsidy will be directed to payment for same and/or child support will be required ... make sure you read everything and understand what you are signing ... and while most of us do this is a very trying time - even in extreme need - for the family and every precaution is necessary!

Medicaid generally covers all RTC costs if the child is placed in a Medicaid certified facility. Social Security can also be applied for for assistance but that is another red tape battle in itself and often receives denial the first submittal.

Know - this is not a bad thing - just a necessary thing in these situations so don't let anyone make you feel inadequate - IT TAKES COURAGE TO LOVE AND LOVE TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO GET YOUR CHILD THE SERVICES THEY NEED!

Heart and prayers!

[zebramom]

In our case, DS had been in court several times, had done juvie a couple times along with a 9 day psych hospital placement and was still getting in trouble. He was court ordered into treatment because other interventions had failed. We filed a police report each time he became violent.

We retain all rights and legal guardianship. Since it was a court order the county is paying the bill, but we pay child support.

[sassafras]

For us we went to the hospital during one of her rages. They admitted her for a psych hold and once the doctors their evaluated her and we requested RTC she was screened and went.