Do you remember Salima Mabry and her son, Joshua, who spent 8 days in a recliner at Wake Human Services (partly due to a lack of emergency respite beds)? Now, there is an alternative to psychiatric wards, which are not always capable of handling teens with challenging behaviors. The new program at the Murdoch Center, called TRACK, has opened 5-6 beds for children 5-17 years old, in need of crisis intervention. The goal is to keep kids out of psychiatric hospitals and emergency rooms. Children may stay from 3 – 45 days, as needed; those with stays over 10 days will receive a new IEP (coordinated with the child’s school system). Please note that requests for a placement at TRACK must go through the LME (local mental health agency), and can be funded either through CAP-MR/DD or private pay.
Finally—an alternative for children in crisis! Thank you, Murdoch Center (and whoever helped create this)…
Tags: autism