luchog
23rd August 2005, 05:23 PM
Hanging out here has reminded me of something I was peripherally involved in a few years back.
My life partner has a son, EG, who has Asperger's Syndrome (for those not familiar with it, it's a form of high-functioning autism). He had problems in grade school, both for obvious reasons, and also because of teachers who had no clue how to deal with AS, and treated it like a behavioural problem. Not only that, but with what would be considered gross incompetance when dealing with behaviour problems. Eventually, one of them decided that EG had been abused; despite the fact that my partner had already informed the school that he had been diagnosed with AS.
The teacher decided to call Child Protective Services; who decided that there was no evidence of abuse; but since EG was a "special needs" child with a history of violent outbursts (common in adolescent AS children, particularly when bullied and mistreated by ignorant and overbearing adults), he was required to see a counsellor. My partner lived in a fairly secluded area, and being disabled herself, could not travel long distances to the city to see a good doctor. The only local source that the CPS-mandated program would pay for was a local "family counselling" clinic; with one counsellor who was supposedly experienced with AS and other Autistic spectrum disorders.
This was a program that was paid for through my partner's disability benefits and CPS funding. IE, the state government paid for it.
Here's where it gets fun. The counsellor, R, had no medical degree at all, not even in Psychology; but did have a BS in "social work". Her idea of dealing with the AS was not a program of teaching socialization and interpersonal and crisis management skills (which is how the legit medical world treats the disorder); she insisted that my partner enroll her son in a program to "teach his brain how to think".
I forget the exact name of the program that R pushed, but it was a minor variation on the Body Talk System (http://www.bodytalksystem.com/), gussied up with some scientific-sounding gibberish. Body Talk is the epitome of woo-woo medical garbage; a mish-mash of several different sources, including mystical Yoga and Applied Kinesiology. And she was getting government funding for this crap.
My partner, being an intelligent and skeptical person, recognized it for what it was, and refused to let this nutjob force her son into the program. What happened then felt like a bad movie. R then colluded with an actual doctor, who was also involved in the BodyTalk crap, to have EG "re-diagnosed". At the same time, she contacted CPS, claimed that my partner was being "uncooperative" about counselling for her son, and claimed she had evidence of abuse. EG was then forcibly removed by CPS. Fortunately, R's doctor associate was not able to get EG into the woo program, but did manage to make his "re-diagnosis" stick well enough to get EG institutionalized. On the good side, the institution was experienced with autistic spectrum disorders, and pretty well free of all the fluffy-bunny woo-woo crap. EG was released home after a typical short-term treatment program.
R was shortly afterwards asked to resign from the counselling center; and rumour was that it had to do with her involvement in woo-woo "treatment", this and similar incidents, and a subsequent funding cut. R claimed it was just because of the funding cut, but she was the only one "let go".
My life partner has a son, EG, who has Asperger's Syndrome (for those not familiar with it, it's a form of high-functioning autism). He had problems in grade school, both for obvious reasons, and also because of teachers who had no clue how to deal with AS, and treated it like a behavioural problem. Not only that, but with what would be considered gross incompetance when dealing with behaviour problems. Eventually, one of them decided that EG had been abused; despite the fact that my partner had already informed the school that he had been diagnosed with AS.
The teacher decided to call Child Protective Services; who decided that there was no evidence of abuse; but since EG was a "special needs" child with a history of violent outbursts (common in adolescent AS children, particularly when bullied and mistreated by ignorant and overbearing adults), he was required to see a counsellor. My partner lived in a fairly secluded area, and being disabled herself, could not travel long distances to the city to see a good doctor. The only local source that the CPS-mandated program would pay for was a local "family counselling" clinic; with one counsellor who was supposedly experienced with AS and other Autistic spectrum disorders.
This was a program that was paid for through my partner's disability benefits and CPS funding. IE, the state government paid for it.
Here's where it gets fun. The counsellor, R, had no medical degree at all, not even in Psychology; but did have a BS in "social work". Her idea of dealing with the AS was not a program of teaching socialization and interpersonal and crisis management skills (which is how the legit medical world treats the disorder); she insisted that my partner enroll her son in a program to "teach his brain how to think".
I forget the exact name of the program that R pushed, but it was a minor variation on the Body Talk System (http://www.bodytalksystem.com/), gussied up with some scientific-sounding gibberish. Body Talk is the epitome of woo-woo medical garbage; a mish-mash of several different sources, including mystical Yoga and Applied Kinesiology. And she was getting government funding for this crap.
My partner, being an intelligent and skeptical person, recognized it for what it was, and refused to let this nutjob force her son into the program. What happened then felt like a bad movie. R then colluded with an actual doctor, who was also involved in the BodyTalk crap, to have EG "re-diagnosed". At the same time, she contacted CPS, claimed that my partner was being "uncooperative" about counselling for her son, and claimed she had evidence of abuse. EG was then forcibly removed by CPS. Fortunately, R's doctor associate was not able to get EG into the woo program, but did manage to make his "re-diagnosis" stick well enough to get EG institutionalized. On the good side, the institution was experienced with autistic spectrum disorders, and pretty well free of all the fluffy-bunny woo-woo crap. EG was released home after a typical short-term treatment program.
R was shortly afterwards asked to resign from the counselling center; and rumour was that it had to do with her involvement in woo-woo "treatment", this and similar incidents, and a subsequent funding cut. R claimed it was just because of the funding cut, but she was the only one "let go".