Dad looking for a Group home for his son ... (San Antonio: apartment, insurance)

[covey582]

Hello - I am looking for a group home in the San Antonio area for my 23 year old son who is Dual Diagnosed. He has finished a recovery program and is doing well on meds for Schitz/Bipolar and wants to be around other young people. He is on aid and eventually wants to get well enough to work part time. Any leads will be appreciated. Thanks!

[skeet09]

Contact these folks and see if they can help you on resources for housing: Untitled Document. It says untitled document but it's a website for a local non profit.
They also have a day program that can help keep your son busy throughout the day as long as he's doing well on meds.

[huckster]

Is he with a local Community Mental Health Clinic already? That is where to start, they have a lot of resources. But you must pursue this avenue doggedly
to get results sometimes. They will even provide counseling. I had to
call and then file a patients right violation on behalf of my son with the county, but they complied immediately after that and provided a psychologist.
I have gone through the exact same thing for one of my sons,
the youngest,22. Schizzo-Affective Disorder, Bipolar. I would never , never
would have considered putting him in an Adult Foster Care Home, but the our family was so disrupted as to become dysfunctional. Things became so bad that after his last hospital stay, the fourth, I regrettably,had to. He is doing far better now for it too.
Anyway,These clinics will recommend AFC homes for you to visit. What I did though was to go to the State Insurance provider website and found a list and then called each one, one by one, and asked questions and then visited.
Sometimes, these homes aren't all that good, young men are put together with older guys 40-50-60 or with guys are very , very troubled.
Stay in the suburbs, look for same age grouping and make sure the staff is kind and have the young man's best interest in mind and visit often.
There are Mental Health Advocacy Groups in Washington D.C. that can help steer you through the Labyrinth if you look for the websites and can help.

Originally Posted by covey582

Hello - I am looking for a group home in the San Antonio area for my 23 year old son who is Dual Diagnosed. He has finished a recovery program and is doing well on meds for Schitz/Bipolar and wants to be around other young people. He is on aid and eventually wants to get well enough to work part time. Any leads will be appreciated. Thanks!

[Schwartz_Austin_09]

Your best bet is to look in the Austin area under MHMR Group Home, Transitional Housing, Boarding Home or Rooming House Austin TX. There are a lot of various different results that will pop up - some of which will be assisted living facilities (ALF's) and others that have different licenses. Here are a few you may want to look into:

Picture Perfect Cooperative Living www.pictureperfectlivingatx.com - these folks are well known in the Central Texas area and have been housing special needs clients for quite a while. They have a great reputation. 512-296-7995

D&S Residential services - www.dsresidential.com - they have been around for over 20 years, but are very big - operations in and out of state, but have a good rep. Not sure what the Austin number is.

Optimum Residential - www.optimum.com -

Draco Services --www.dracosi.com they do a nice job as well. Locally owned (Austin TX) company 512-891-8285. You can call them and speak with Gordon

[covey582]

All,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I called and visited and it was depressing, every place I went. One place insisted on converting my sick son to Jesus, or the places were so depressing I wouldn't put any relative there. The mentally ill in this country are ignored. Particularly in Texas. The sober house my son was in closed because (allegedly) the owner took his own life (so I'm told) and the house leader went back into rehab. I am trying an apartment one more time. The list I got from NAMI had lots of disconnected numbers and dead ends. We can spend Trillions fighting dumb wars but not care for those that can't cope.

[huckster]

the mentally ill. Especially so in Texas. The average amount spent on
the mentally ill on a per state basis is $143.00. In Texas it is $34.00 and now will probably be reduced to around $13.00 per month. Texas is a great place to live but as always is far behind in many social policies.
What really doesn't make sense is that the mentally ill will be ignored cast out into the streets ,become homeless, drug users, alcholics and commit crimes out of a need to survive. They cannot function or work, they are unable to.
Socially disfunctional, they will be picked up, sent to hospital emergency rooms, then jails, and then back to the steet they go. It is absolutly ridiculous. To give welfare to able people, to wage unneeded wars to kill, but let mentally disabled persons become social outcasts. It is immoral and not a worthy policy of the United States of America. It is unfathomable to me, the acceptance of this cycle. One can recognize these people occasionally on the street ; speaking to themselves and looking lost and disheveled and- I never recognized it until I experienced these behavior patterns first hand in my son. It is an unspeakable shame for this country.
As if they were lepers- these poor souls are ignored and shunted aside and suffer with anguish daily for something that is completely out of their control.

Originally Posted by covey582

All,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I called and visited and it was depressing, every place I went. One place insisted on converting my sick son to Jesus, or the places were so depressing I wouldn't put any relative there. The mentally ill in this country are ignored. Particularly in Texas. The sober house my son was in closed because (allegedly) the owner took his own life (so I'm told) and the house leader went back into rehab. I am trying an apartment one more time. The list I got from NAMI had lots of disconnected numbers and dead ends. We can spend Trillions fighting dumb wars but not care for those that can't cope.

[alisonb123]

Yes, you are correct. For those looking for Assisted Living in Austin TX or anywhere in Central Texas for people diagnosed with schizophrenia, Bi-Polar disorder, depression, brain trauma issues, (especially for vets returning from war in middle east) or any other cognative or behavioral health issues, I would first recommend touching base with ATCIC --formerly MHMR here in Austin. Lots of them have lists of group homes in Austin as well as boarding homes here in Austin TX. Unfortunately, like you said, many of these home numbers will be disconnected as most are not really organizations that are run well. The next step is to touch base with Family Eldercare or NAMI
[URL="http://www.familyeldercare.org"]www.familyeldercare.org[/URL] or [URL="http://www.nami.org"]www.nami.org[/URL]. Aside from that, I would also touch base with the people at Seton Shoal Creek and Austin Lakes -- you can look up there web addresses online. Both hospitals help people with MHMR and bi-polar, dual-diagnosed and other special needs. They also provide housing lists for special needs housing locations / group home / boarding homes / rooming Houses etc. I'd also recommend calling 512-296-7995 ---
[URL="http://www.pictureperfectlivingatx.com"]www.pictureperfectlivingatx.com[/URL] and possible calling D&S Residential - [URL="http://www.dsresidential.com"]www.dsresidential.com[/URL]

Both organizations have great reputations in Austin for special needs housing. last, assuming alcohal related or substance abuse related (which many in the special needs community have) - try looking up Sober Homes Austin TX or transitional housing Austin TX into Google. Again, Picture Perfect Cooperative Living will probably show up, but there is also Austin Clean House, the Oxford House --or [URL="http://www.oxfordhouse.org"]www.oxfordhouse.org[/URL]

Hopefully this helps

[Sherry Justice]

Were you ever able to find a quality group home/residential living for your son? I am moving to Texas in the summer and am seeking the same for my 29 yr olold son. Thanks

[kendsley]

start here
The Center for Health Care Services

[Sherry Justice]

Thanks so much!