I spoke with my son's case manager yesterday. He seems on board with the idea of trying alternative treatments for my son. He wants to see the kinds of things I'm reading and thinking about so we can be on the same page. He even mentioned the fact that the medical profession and Big Pharm are very intertwined. He seems truly interested in working with us. So we have another person on the team.

He's going to try and get permission to have other mhc workers who are open to the non-medication approach come to the house and spend time with my son. He thinks three days a week would be great. Of course, he has to get that approved by his supervisor who is extremely pro-med. She and I had a verbal tussle before Christmas, leaving me with the impression that no one at the mhc would be open to helping us in this endeavor.

The main problem, though, is that we live so far out in the country. It irritates me that the state will pay $1000/month for life for psychotropics, but they won't pay a few hundred bucks a month short-term for some kind of relationship-based therapy. Of course if you're convinced it won't work then why try?

The case manager suggested that my son live in one of the houses that the mhc owns in town. Last time he lived there he was required to take meds, so he probably won't be cleared for that. It's worth a try, though. He'd be home on weekends.

The case manager is also working with another client, dx'd schizoaffective, who wishes to be off medications. They're currently reducing his medication and trying various dietary and herbal supplements instead. So he has some experience working with a client who is refusing meds.

He mentioned that his educational background is in psychology, not SW like many others at the mhc. He even said it was Jung that attracted him to psychology.

He mentioned the problem of staff being afraid of the clients at the mhc. I know they're afraid of my son and consider him dangerous. This case manager works with several clients the others are afraid of, and he says he has no fear turning his back to any of them.

I even have the feeling this guy is looking forward to taking a different approach and thinking outside the box.

So it looks like we lucked out and got a good addition to our team. Maybe more will follow.