We need some special programs for seventeen-year-olds. Too young quite to be treated like an adult (and they don't have a clue what is going to hit them on their next birhday), and too close to being an adult for the children's programs and services to do much either. We worry about it when we get 17-year-olds where I work, because although some of them do well, many of them know their parents can't make them stay past their birthday so they just sit there and mark their time. I really feel for you. I don't know what I would do in your situation - maybe keep pushing for help from the youth services, even if it could only be for a short time, she still falls under their responsibility for now. It isn't right that we have this gap and kids are in limbo because they are about to make the transition to adults. We need some kind of transition program for troubled teens/young adults, that can not only fill that gap, but stay with them through the transition.

Turning 18 was abrupt for me also. I turned 18 and moved from Texas to New Mexico all in the same week. In one place I was a kid - a high school student/recent graduate. Then suddenly I was a college student and an adult. My driver's licence expired when I moved, since they expire when you turn 18, and I had to take the driving test again in order to get a new one, because I was in a different state with an expired license. I was also on my own for the first time, since even though I was forced to move along with my parents, I had to go out ahead of them to start school on time. I didn't know anyone at all. It was a completely different life.

I can only imagine what that's like for kids who are struggling with the things your daughter is, or worse things. This is a real shortfalling in our society.

Rap