Board & Care Triumph...for now

The title of this post may seem a bit of a downer at first glance, maybe a bit skeptical.  Sorry about that but whenever something good happens I try not to get TOOOOOO excited because many times a disappointment follows.

Good news: My son K, who has been diagnosed with undifferentiated schizophrenia, interviewed at a board and care facility on Thursday and (drum roll) got ACCEPTED!  It's a board and care facility in Santa Monica across the street from the college K wants to start attending again so the location is great.  It's going to cost $981 a month but that's okay.  We've got to now petition Social Security to increase his benefit to cover the cost of board and care which is possible and doable.


What is a board and care facility?  It is a place of residence for those with disabilities like K where they will monitor medications, provide three square meals a day, provide laundry and common area facilities for residents, and monitor their comings and goings.  So yes, the residents there get to come and go as they please but they are monitored - someone checks on them every day and makes sure they take their medications.


Right now K still needs to have someone monitor his meds - like make sure he actually swallows his pill.  So a board and care facility where someone will monitor his med intake is absolutely necessary.  He takes Risperidone and since he started taking it back in March of this year, we've seen a huge improvement in his behavior (more calm, fewer/no hallucinations).  According to his therapist and doctor his brain is in the process of healing.


If he were to live on his own and not have his meds monitored, he would eventually stop taking his meds (thinking he's okay and doesn't need meds) and very shortly thereafter (within a few days) he would have one of his "episodes" which would possibly require hospitalization.


Within the past year K has been in the hospital nine times.  Six of those visits to the hospital were within a three month period when we were still trying to figure out what was wrong and shortly after his diagnosis.  It was probably the most awful period of my life and his too, I'm sure. 

It totally sucks when you don't know what's wrong with your child and you can see that they are tortured by their own inability to think clearly and they know it too.