Status Update

Well, Jake is back at Broadlawns. I know, didn't he just leave there? Well yes actually he did. So, let's go back a few days and start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... wait, wrong story...

Anyhow, Friday morning Jake's mom called him at MECCA to discuss his decision to go to the halfway house instead of going to the additional treatment program. At this point he had once again changed his mind and told her he would do whatever he had to to be with his family and so he was once again on track to go to the long-term program.

Then Friday night I got a call from him asking about the long-term program. He was pretty insistent so I asked him why the sudden change of heart and he told me he couldn't stay there anymore. They were kicking him out. They are what? How the hell do you get kicked out?

Apparently at the joke program it is pretty easy. A girl he transferred with got in a yelling match with another girl and they kicked her out. (Well she was a ward of the state like Jake so they transferred her since they couldn't kick her out but you get the point.) Apparently they have no interest in teaching you life skills at this place they are just interested in making you follow their rules or sending you somewhere else.

So anyhow, he tells me this story that I don't believe. There is no part of it that sounds real and so I instantly think he's making it up. He says that these girls accused him and his room mate of climbing out of their window in the middle of the night and knocking on the girls window. Why you ask? Who knows, he claims that he was asleep.

Instantly I think he got caught doing drugs or he ran away or something. Anything more logical than that. As soon as I hung up with him I called the main number and asked to speak with the director. They tried to give me the run around but I was pretty insistent (to the point that I would have gone down there and knocked on the door if they wouldn't have put him on the phone) so they let me talk to him.

I asked him what was going on and told him the cockamamie story that I had gotten from Jake and to my utter disbelief he tells me that what I heard is pretty much the truth except they are saying that Jake and the other guy were in the room not just knocking on the window.

Okay, so did he go in there to steal something? No.

Did he go in there to be with one of the girls? No. Misses Hamilton, I want to stress to you that there are NO allegations of anything inappropriate happening. The girls have not accused them of doing anything but standing in their room.

So you want me to believe that a 26 year old man who takes a medicine that puts him to sleep woke up in the middle of the night, climbed out of his bedroom window and climbed into another room just to stand there?

Through further conversation with the director I get the "real" story. No staff caught these men. It supposedly happened on Wednesday night but wasn't reported until Friday. Further more he gives me the impression that he doesn't even feel this is a true story. BUT because there are three girls and only two guys they have to error on the side of caution and Jake and this other guy have to leave.

So, I explain to him that Jake has no where to go and that he is court ordered to be there. He says that Jake can stay until Monday as long as he behaves himself, which he has no indication that he won't. He also stresses to me that Jake has maintained his innocence throughout the whole thing.

My take on what happened. Jake ran his mouth to some of these girls after the girl he got transferred in with got kicked out and he pissed them off. Since they knew how easy it was to get people in trouble they made up a story to get these two guys kicked out. No, I don't think he was just standing in some girls room. The director didn't think that and he's there, so I don't have any reason to believe that he was.

Now tell me he was there to steal money or cigarettes from them and then you have a believable story.

So, Jake behaved himself and was there all weekend. Monday morning I had not heard anything by noon so I called him. He told me that he knew nothing so I decided to go above his head and call the director back. This time no one squabbled with me, they just transferred me.

The director, this man is a class A idiot, this much I have learned in the last five days, knew nothing. Finally at about 2:00 his counselor called me back. He told me that he had faxed all of the paperwork to the long-term program to try to get Jake in but that the lady that does the processing was out sick. He also told me that he had called the clerk of court to find out what they needed to do but had not heard back and so if he didn't hear anything by the end of the day Jake would be discharged.

He would be what?? Oh no, no, no... this just won't do. So I got on the phone and started making calls. First I called the lawyer who represented us on the involuntary commitment. He didn't answer so I left a message. Then I called the clerk of court. There I got some answers. He told me that he had called MECCA back and told them that legally they could not just discharge Jake. They had to hold him until another court order could be issued transferring him somewhere else.

So, he basically told me that he was waiting on paperwork from them so that he could go before the judge and the judge could decide whether to send Jake back to Broadlawn's or to release him. I, rather insistently, told him that I would prefer Broadlawns. (Shh... Jake doesn't know that). Then I made plans for Jess to meet me at my parents house and I went home and drove Jake's jeep there. If he was coming home I was not leaving his jeep there for him to go through. I haven't had a chance to clean it out yet and I didn't need any temptations since he hasn't even really been through treatment yet.

Once she brought me back home I headed back to work for an hour. On my way back I got a call from the MECCA counselor. Apparently he had not gotten the paperwork to the clerk of court in time to have the judge look at it so Jake had to stay there until Tuesday. As I later found out this was because the director, see class A, #1 idiot above, told him he couldn't miss his group to work on the paperwork. He then told the counselor that he would finish it while he was in group. He didn't.

Moving on to Tuesday. By 10:30 I had heard nothing of the transfer order so I called the clerk of court. He returned my phone call at 11:00 and said that the order had been signed by the judge and that Jake was going to go back to Broadlawns. They were just waiting on transportation. So I call his counselor and leave him a message asking about the paperwork that he was supposed to get to the long-term place and also about Jake's transfer.

Then at 12:00 I call Jake. (They have specified phone hours) At this hour no one had told him that the transfer had been signed or that he was going back to Broadlawns. He was completely unaware that at any moment his ride could show up and he needed to have all of his things packed and be ready to go. Some communication system they have there!!

Finally at around 1:00 his counselor called me back to tell me that he had told Jake to get packed and that the director was frantically trying to arrange transportation because he wanted Jake out of there that day. (After all he was causing SOO many problems at this point what with minding his own business and reading in his room and napping and all).

However, as it turns out the transportation could not be arranged so Jake stayed in MECCA one more night. This morning he was transferred back to Broadlawns where he will sit until we can get all of the paperwork processed for the long term program.

And that... is an entirely different story. I have been working with this program since Monday. The woman who does the intakes is out sick. She has been out sick all week. I finally got another woman to help me who assured me that she would look at the paperwork and let me know if a bed was available by today but here it is 4:45 pm and I have not gotten a phone call. SO... it looks like one more day ticks off the clock.

One month, Five days and Jake STILL hasn't even started his treatment program. I realize that he is safe and he is clean but at some point I would really just like to get this show on the road.