Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Our Star, Today....SPOA!

SPOA stands for Single Point of Access. In New York, it is the only way to get mental health care beyond once a week therapy.  Hope's therapists filled out a SPOA application last week. I took it home, read it and sent it to the proper office. Yesterday I received a call from the SPOA lady, who said I needed an axis four diagnosis and a GAF. A GAF is a number that tells you a child's Generalized Assessment of Functioning. I needed this number to get GB a medicaid waiver. Her GAF was a 68. Her socialization skills were not age appropriate and her self care skills were behind, too. Hope's GAF was a 48. This score is apparently low enough to get her an RCT placement. We don't want an RTC placement- The Dad and  I are convinced that if we sent Hope any where, we would lose what chance we had of her healing. I do believe she needs more support services.


I am still sleeping better with the alarm on Hope's door set.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, how can I pray for you? I would love to exchange info!

Sarah said...

According to S's most recent assessment (one month ago) his GAF is 48. A year ago it was 55. It is interesting to hear that is low enough for RTC. There are days I think that is appropriate but most of the time I think that would be committing him to never healing. At least home with me there is hope.... even if that assessment said his number went down over the past year.