Regarding 'Woody'........

Woody being the name I gave the young fellow in foster care that I've worked with for the last few months. Last week I had a very terse email message from Woody's foster father saying he had been removed from their home. Since then I had a reply to my message to he and his wife, thanking me for my efforts on Woody's behalf. The only other word I've had is through a third party to say that he is now in residence at an area group home with other teens. Sad.

In reviewing my notes I'm unable to see where I could have presented anything more to him or in a different more manageable form. The fact is that he was defiant and wanted to continue doing things his way despite consequence. He wanted to drug despite what any authority might have to say or do about it. He failed to recognize that he had an entire team of people trying to divert him from this path onto one of change.

Hardly the outcome any of us wanted for him.

Intervention

I'm looking forward to beginning work next week with that teen ward. It's got the noggin in gear again formulating a plan of attack. Assessment and drug history, placement on the continuum of addiction, determining where he is in the 'stages of change', building a personal profile and family history, educational component re drug use and suspension of personality development/maturation, presentation of options, trigger identification, impulse management, recreational alternatives, goal setting, team building...........and on.....and on.

It'll be interesting trying to engage someone that young (14) in the process.

If I had one wish it would be that drugs weren't so readily available.

Prohibition and law enforcement aren't working.