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Value Options is Neither: No is Not The Right Answer – Guest Post

Imagine for a moment, you are in the middle of a serious crisis with your child, who has been fighting a potentially life threatening illness for several months; you are doing everything you can to keep it together and ensure that they are getting the best care available. There are multiple hospitalizations, treatment team meetings,…

February 8, 2013
Childhood Mental Illness – Thanks Ricki Lake!

I want to give a big thanks to The Ricki Lake Show, Ricki, Rebecca, her producer, and the rest of the Ricki Lake staff for the amazing show today. Thanks for portraying our kids as kids that need support, not monsters, not stereotypes. If you found The Mindstorm after watching the show, we have a…

February 6, 2013
Value Options is Neither – And A Judge Agrees

I’m going to post this without commentary. Ok, one thing. Value Options, your days of taking our tax dollars to deny children services are numbered. Any emphasis is mine. P.G. BY AND THROUGH HIS MOTHER, ) K.G., AND S.K. BY AND THROUGH HIS ) MOTHER, A.K. ) ) PLAINTIFFS, ) VS. ) ) JULIE HAMOS,…

February 5, 2013
Value Options is Neither : Making a Fortune Killing the Individual Grant Program

I know a lot about how Value Options does business because the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health began contracting with Value Options in 2007 to manage the Individual Care Grant program. The Individual Care Grant, or ICG, is a program, became law in Illinois in the 1970’s, and was revised to this current code…

February 2, 2013
Value Options is Neither – An Open Letter to Tom Warburton, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Value Options, Inc.

Perhaps you read about Pickles, the eight-year-old girl with Schizoaffective Disorder that Value Options is trying to have removed from her residential treatment facility against the medical advice of her treatment team. Adrienne Jones of No Points For Style wrote this brilliant blog post about the situation, which is still ongoing. Adrienne and Pickle’s mom are dear…

January 31, 2013
I Met a Teenager On The Internet And Moved Her Into My Home

Sounds like the headline of a story in The Enquirer that should have a subtitle of, “And she stole all of my stuff, poisoned my dog, and ran off with the mailman!” Doesn’t it? But seriously, we did. Two weeks ago, a smart, complex, funny young lady came to live with our family. I “met” her two…

January 27, 2013
Why I Speak Up Against Stigma

I spend a lot of time on social media sites, Facebook and Twitter mainly. Today I read two posts that show you why I continue to speak out about childhood onset mental illness, and why it’s important that, if you can, you speak out too. First, on the Facebook page for a great blog called…

January 25, 2013
Coming Home – Eventually

“When is my next home visit?” That’s the first thing Tim asks when we talk on the phone nightly. Even the night of the afternoon Tom dropped him back at RTC after his holiday home visit, the first question was about when he could come home again. And we’re working on the plan to start…

January 7, 2013
Keeping Focus

When the Newtown tragedy happened, there was immediately a lot of Internet rhetoric around two topics: mental health care and gun control. Being a proponent of both, I jumped into conversations about both and tried to steer the conversations to addressing both. It took me about two days to realize – after the media started…

January 3, 2013
Nothing Is What It Seems – Follow Up

Tom has been making a flurry of phone calls and doctor’s appointments over the last several weeks. After two failed attempts to get Tim into the cardiologist for the echo cardiogram his doctor wanted, he finally went in last week and got it accomplished. And when I say failed attempts, I mean failure of epic proportions Tim just…

December 27, 2012

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