PJ' residential treatment at McLean
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Hi, we are the Lanzatella family! Our youngest child is P.J. He is 14 years old. P.J. was diagnosed with Autism at 22 months of age. That is a very early diagnosis, which is great, because the faster you begin early intervention therapy, the better!
P.J. began this odyssey with the greatest attitude! Even at that young age he worked at therapy 40 hours a week! He NEVER complained! Because of his wonderful hard working optimistic attitude, P.J. blossomed! He had reached the point that at the beginning of 8th grade he was an honors student! Every reporting period! You just never saw P.J. without a smile for everyone. He is very sweet and empathetic, and thrives on following the rules. A few months into his 8th grade year something happened. Nobody at this point is sure of what it was, but something changed.
Almost overnight, P.J. became overwhelmed by O.C.D. symptoms. Then within 2 weeks of that, he began having disabling tics. One Sunday he laid on the couch, ALL day, having physical tics so severe I was afraid he was going to break his back! I sat with him all day, massaging his body with lotion to calm him. Over the last 10 months his depression, anxiety, O.C.D. ,tics became worse and worse. He is now at the point that he sits alone in school all day, unable to even do any work. He has gone from the best student in class to the most non-existent. He has been under the care of his PCP, a neurologist, and a developmental pediatrician, as well as a therapist for about 10 months.
Unfortunately, we are no better off than when we started. He is on a plethora of medications. The otherday I was checking the history on the PC, as always, to see what he is looking at on it. I saw that he had "googled" "I hate my life". I have become afraid for his state of mind. He asks me, "Why doesn't anything make me happy anymore?" And one day he said, "There is something in my brain that is making me do things I don't want".
After much research, and help from his doctors, we found 2 places in the U.S. that can give him the kind of help he needs. One is in Wisconsin. We called them and they said you have great timing. We are opening a residential treatment facility in Massachusetts and we have a year wait list. It is set to open in March. We were so relieved! Since we live in Rochester, NY that is only about 7 hours from us! The facility is McLean adolescent cognitve therapy hospital. It is associated with Harvard and has an impeccable reputation. They are only set up to take 12 patients at a time. They listened to our story and said they would squeeze him in in April (since he is in such trouble). We were all set to go and ALL of his doctors agreed that is where he needs to go. But then, insurance turned it down! They said P.J. has no coverage for residential treatment! The cost of his stay there will be $30,000 a month. He must stay there at least 45 days to two months. We have NO way of paying this cost. As it is, his father, Phil has had 2 open-heart surgeries which has really cut our income back, we have absolutely no savings at all because of it. Unfortunately this is not only the best option for P.J., it is the ONLY option! It isn't like they can treat him here in Rochester but not as well. It is that NOBODY here does this kind of therapy! Even rsidential treatment here isn't capable of helping him. He would come home and still do his communication "rituals".
If we can get P.J. anywhere close to where he was prior to this, he WILL be a wonderful, functioning member of society. He might even be capable of going to college and holding a job! This is a matter of literally saving his life!
As it is now, P.J. is slipping away from us more each day. Retreating further and further into his own world, incapable of socializing even with us! His own family! He is totally unrealistic and irrational in all of his social and communication skills at this point. There is no way to even deal with him at home. We cannot even give him simple instructions, like, brush your teeth. There is no way to get through to him at this point. We have explored every option; even changing insurance companies! But this is what we are down to. This is our only hope of getting P.J. the help he needs. Time is of the essence since they are holding a place for him in mid April. anyway anyone can contribute would be greatly appreciated. we want our son back!!!! Please don't hesitate to call with any questions.
Phil { McQuaid "79" St. Lawrence University "83" U.S. Army 1986-1990} and Melody Lanzatella {Trinity HS "82".
P.J. began this odyssey with the greatest attitude! Even at that young age he worked at therapy 40 hours a week! He NEVER complained! Because of his wonderful hard working optimistic attitude, P.J. blossomed! He had reached the point that at the beginning of 8th grade he was an honors student! Every reporting period! You just never saw P.J. without a smile for everyone. He is very sweet and empathetic, and thrives on following the rules. A few months into his 8th grade year something happened. Nobody at this point is sure of what it was, but something changed.
Almost overnight, P.J. became overwhelmed by O.C.D. symptoms. Then within 2 weeks of that, he began having disabling tics. One Sunday he laid on the couch, ALL day, having physical tics so severe I was afraid he was going to break his back! I sat with him all day, massaging his body with lotion to calm him. Over the last 10 months his depression, anxiety, O.C.D. ,tics became worse and worse. He is now at the point that he sits alone in school all day, unable to even do any work. He has gone from the best student in class to the most non-existent. He has been under the care of his PCP, a neurologist, and a developmental pediatrician, as well as a therapist for about 10 months.
Unfortunately, we are no better off than when we started. He is on a plethora of medications. The otherday I was checking the history on the PC, as always, to see what he is looking at on it. I saw that he had "googled" "I hate my life". I have become afraid for his state of mind. He asks me, "Why doesn't anything make me happy anymore?" And one day he said, "There is something in my brain that is making me do things I don't want".
After much research, and help from his doctors, we found 2 places in the U.S. that can give him the kind of help he needs. One is in Wisconsin. We called them and they said you have great timing. We are opening a residential treatment facility in Massachusetts and we have a year wait list. It is set to open in March. We were so relieved! Since we live in Rochester, NY that is only about 7 hours from us! The facility is McLean adolescent cognitve therapy hospital. It is associated with Harvard and has an impeccable reputation. They are only set up to take 12 patients at a time. They listened to our story and said they would squeeze him in in April (since he is in such trouble). We were all set to go and ALL of his doctors agreed that is where he needs to go. But then, insurance turned it down! They said P.J. has no coverage for residential treatment! The cost of his stay there will be $30,000 a month. He must stay there at least 45 days to two months. We have NO way of paying this cost. As it is, his father, Phil has had 2 open-heart surgeries which has really cut our income back, we have absolutely no savings at all because of it. Unfortunately this is not only the best option for P.J., it is the ONLY option! It isn't like they can treat him here in Rochester but not as well. It is that NOBODY here does this kind of therapy! Even rsidential treatment here isn't capable of helping him. He would come home and still do his communication "rituals".
If we can get P.J. anywhere close to where he was prior to this, he WILL be a wonderful, functioning member of society. He might even be capable of going to college and holding a job! This is a matter of literally saving his life!
As it is now, P.J. is slipping away from us more each day. Retreating further and further into his own world, incapable of socializing even with us! His own family! He is totally unrealistic and irrational in all of his social and communication skills at this point. There is no way to even deal with him at home. We cannot even give him simple instructions, like, brush your teeth. There is no way to get through to him at this point. We have explored every option; even changing insurance companies! But this is what we are down to. This is our only hope of getting P.J. the help he needs. Time is of the essence since they are holding a place for him in mid April. anyway anyone can contribute would be greatly appreciated. we want our son back!!!! Please don't hesitate to call with any questions.
Phil { McQuaid "79" St. Lawrence University "83" U.S. Army 1986-1990} and Melody Lanzatella {Trinity HS "82".
Organizer
Melody Lanzatella
Organizer
Rochester, NY
