In the last five months, the child has visited the ER four times! Each time, he was sent home for his single mother to deal with. ONE time, the State was involved and he was going to be placed in a temporary, residential facility. They wouldn't take him.
His family is at their wits' end. None of his caretakers are equipped to really help him. From the state legal system to the education system to the child advocacy and welfare system, there has been abject failure and neglect.
Today, he sits in a two-week residential facility out-of-state only because of his decision to fire a deadly weapon inside the home (with two other minor children and three adults, one an expectant mother). That situation could have turned out much worse. As it was, an early a.m. gunshot only damaged a replaceable kitchen appliance. The sound of that gunshot is what got the state's attention, finally.
The mother and other caregivers of this child have been screaming at the top of their lungs for the state child welfare system to take him in for psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation. No one wanted to do their job.
His older brother, a teen, is in a residential facility in Muncie, IN. He only got the help he needed after he perpetrated an assault on his brother. A CHINS case was opened by the State of Indiana (Child in need of services). Why should it have to come to this? Who's life has to be permanently altered for the system to work...for a 10-year-old with pre-existing conditions who is now traumatized and in crisis???
Who is going to advocate for him once his family's resources and energy are totally depleted? Who will be his voice?
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