#RADNAV23 update
Best Choice has partnered with a foundation to create Restoration Pathways to help parents with funding. Through this fundraising tool, friends and family can make a tax deductible donation! There’s also an option for an employee match. For more information, contact Best Choice.
I’m in Atlanta at the Navigating RAD 22 conference with RAD Advocates this weekend. For those of you who couldn’t make it, this is your place for the highlights from the amazing speakers!
Seeking Alternative Placement When Home Isn’t Working
Scott Smith, Best Choice Admissions
Highlights & Takeaways
Best Choice Admissions is a free service for parents that helps find the right therapeutic school for your child.
- It’s not failure when you need more help. Allowing the child to continue to fail at home is not a way forward. There is no treading water with RAD. The entire family is being damaged.
- When considering if out of home placement is right for you:
- Ask yourself if you have heart strings to your child? If you don’t have heart strings you probably aren’t going to be able to effectively manage them.
- The difference between and extreme and a mild situation is usually how long a parent waits to get help.
- Doesn’t matter how good of a parent you are: You cannot watch them 24 hours a day, you cannot force them to change, you cannot put the rest of the family at risk.
- These are signs your child may need placement:
- When everything you try doesn’t workWhen it’s effecting the whole home and siblingsWhen your child is no longer participating in receiving helpWhen illegal drug use is consider acceptableWhen parents cannot keep the children safe from risky behaviors
- When medications are unmanageable
- Placement should not be a scare tactic. This is not a punishment, it is when your child needs more help.
- How do I find the right program? Internet reviews and survivor pages don’t tell the whole story about a facility. This is why a service like Best Choice Admissions can be helpful.
- Best Choice Admissions is funded by the programs they represent and offer their services to parents free of choice. They do not work off a commission. They will inform you of any discounts the program is offering.
- The programs cost between $500 and $18,000 per month. The average cost is $8,000 per month. This is paid for by insurance, fundraising, or out of pocket. Insurance coverage typically is only available short term.
- Best Choice Admissions does have some free resource opportunities, but there are waiting lists. They also can refer you to financial assistance options.
As an admissions director of a large boarding school for struggling teens for nearly a decade, Scott understands the benefits and struggles with alternative placements. Today, he leads the Best Choice Admissions team, visits schools across the nation, and helps parents to find the right program the first time and within their budget.
Related posts:
A Chat about the Reality and Strategies Through the Hard Work of RAD #NAVRAD22
"Why Am I Feeling Crazy?": The Life of RAD Parenting" #NavRAD22
Reimagining Success as a RAD Parent #NAVRAD22
Glass Children: The Impact of RAD on Siblings #NAVRAD22
RAD and its relationship to mental health disorders #NAVRAD22
It is wonderful that there is now coordinated effort to help parents at this juncture. It is so scary. Thank you for a great post.
Thank you for all the things you have done to support the community with your book Chasing Lilly!