What Next for Sammy?

The last post, the one about Sammy, is about a kid who had an unstable beginning, had a mother who spent years pleading for help, and she is still searching today. His problems are complex and multi-determined, so no one treatment will work for him. Drugs only made things worse, as he really got to like Xanax and Klonipin, so he stole them from his mother, and anyone else who had them.  Psychotherapy was difficult.  Perhaps if I was able to see him three times a week, but his mother couldn’t get him to me that often and insurance wouldn’t pay for that.

A treatment plan that may have worked would have been if he could have been placed in a therapeutic day school, beginning in around third grade when his difficulties became obvious.  He didn’t need to be sent away, and that would have probably made things worse.  But if he could have lived with his mother and brother, and gone to a school with small classes and counseling, where, over time, people would have gotten to know him.  it would have given him a much better chance.

There are three or four schools like that around here. By around here I mean an hour to two hours away.  They would have been expensive for the town, and those special schools filled up early. The town and an advocate would have had to push hard and often to get him in.  But since the school regarded Sammy’s mother as a pain in the ass, and thought that her family was just trash, they were not going to give Sammy what he needed.

The mental health system didn’t offer much.  He didn’t need to be hospitalized, so it was up to me, out there by myself, to do what I could. I was able to get him into a couple of special classes, mostly for academic help, but as I said he was a tough kid to bond with, so the teachers gave up quickly.

Now that he is in his early twenties his problems are considered criminal.  He was caught with a Class A substance.  That means he was arrested.  The criminal justice system may be the only place that he will get treatment.  With so many over-dosing happening now in New England the courts are trying to find more treatment options for people with addictions. But someone will have to determine if he is “motivated.”  Really, it should be part of the job of the treatment program to find a way to get him motivated, and to care about himself.  But that is a much more complex task.

As  it is now Sammy is just another casualty of the “War on Drugs.” The “War on Drugs” now ranks with other recent wars in American history, such as Viet Nan and the invasion of Iraq, as worse than a total failure. 

I’ll discuss that next time.