My fiance and I have custody of his 17 year old brother (we are 27). All of the children, including my fiance, have been moved around to various caretakers because of their irresponsible parents. His brother, the youngest, has been moved around about 5 times in the past 6 years. Every time his stay has ended due to his behavior. His normal actions consists of, not listening, lies incessantly, is disrepectful to others etc. All of the "typical" behaviors of a teenager. The last straw in his stay with his caretakers consists of running away, asking to be beat up, telling people he's been beat up, skipping school and threats of suicide. This episode has always ended up with them relinquishing guardianship of him. Well we ARE the last straw and we are AT our last straw. There is no where else for him to go other than foster care, and his behavior has reached the point were it is jeopardizing our jobs and new house.

As of right now, he is at a children's hospital that focuses on mental disorders. The doctors say he has textbook symptoms of schizophrenia, and after educating myself I see that he does have some attributes. His main symptoms are: flat effect, lack of pleasure in everday life, hygiene neglect, poor executive functioning and working memory.

My questions/concerns are:

Can he be faking?
If he takes medicine, will it help these symptoms because those are the only ones that are prevelant?
Will a good Foster Care program help or hurt his diagnosis in the end?
Will these medicines make him more "flat"?

I understand that many of my questions are ignorant, but I can't help but feel this way at the moment. He has a wonderful life here with us, but he doesn't seem to know how good he has it. His behavior has put many things in jeopardy, however what point do we have to think of ourselves? And at what point do we say, "well, we've done everything we could for him?"

Please advise.