Thankful

"We are so grateful to have such professional and caring people help us through this very difficult process..."

We were living with a dangerous child. We were doing the best we could keeping family member safe but our son was getting worse fast.

The evening we met our team and were part of the CFF group we knew we were going to be ok. That first evening we were extremely impressed with how Irma and Becca handled the session. They were very skilled in handling our son who is very manipulative. They seemed to immediately pick up on things that only our psychiatrist and we understood. Their ability to handle the meeting, keep Joe* within boundaries and have a productive discussion was impressive to us as we have been dealing with Joe’s* issues for many years.

It did not take long before they completely understood the seriousness of the situation. Joe* was not willing to make any change and was continuing to threaten us. We needed to get crisis assistance on a few occasions; we knew we were finally not alone. When it came time for Joe* to be hospitalized, they stayed with us until after midnight in the emergency room and insisted on waiting for the ambulance to arrive before they would leave. They spent hours trying to find a bed at a psychiatric hospital and just kept reassuring us that they would keep working until they did.

After he was hospitalized they continued to help us along in the process of getting him to a RTF. They arranged the children’s review team and were part of the meeting with CCBH. They continued to meet with him to try to help him understand that he needed to be a part of treatment.

We as a family had experienced trauma living with Joe* but we were also experiencing a loss with seeing him so violent and angry in the hospital. We were feeling relief that we were safe and looking forward to some normalcy in our lives. We had much work to do helping our son Tim* who Joe* had physically and emotionally hurt. We had such mixed emotions and were all in a different place in the healing process. Irma and Becca helped us all move forward, they are great listeners and very compassionate. They knew just what to say and when to say something. I was having the hardest time and they really helped me move forward.

Reflecting back on the experience, we are so grateful to have such professional and caring people help us through this very difficult process. We are all safe and we will never forget the impact they had on our lives. We are very thankful for everything they did for our family.

*Names were changed to protect the family