Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And joining me on the line right now is a mum, Chantelle,
who is going through I believe, quite a difficult situation
with her young fellow. Good morning to you, Chantelle, Good
morning Katie.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, really good? Thank you so much for your time
this morning. Now you'd emailed me and this is something
you've never done before being in contact with the radio station.
But you're really like you're quite exasperated at the moment
and in need of some support. Talk me through some
of your situation.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well you quote right there, Katies, and to be fair,
it's exhausting. Yeah. So I relocated from Melbourne January of
this year because I have an older disabled son. Yep,
I have family up here in the Northern Territory who
you know, we're kind enough, you know, obviously were family.
You need to help me look after him. But I
(00:57):
suppose I have another child who's with the one will
talk about his eleven. He's on autistic and he's got
quite a few other sort of acronyms ADHD O D
D that type of stuff. Who probably haven't handled the
interstate change so well, you know, And I've found since
moving where we had a really quitt supportive network, moving
(01:19):
to dial when it was very, very hard to access
services up here in the Northern Territory. He is an
NDIS participant, and we've been on waitlists for you know,
for an ot for behavior specialist, for speech breathesst all
of these people for some time. We did manage to
get in to see a pediatrician who did a medication
change to try and help curb some of the behaviors
(01:42):
he was experiencing from the change. Unfortunately, that medication didn't
do what it was needed to do and sent him
sort of the other way. He become quite violent. He's
sent home from school multiple times, he's been suspended. You know,
we're trying to work with this specialist of that specialist
tack stuff, and in the end last week he actually
(02:03):
tried to kill me. So you know, he was just
you know, you're try and do all the parental things,
no raising children, putting boundaries in place, but this particular episode,
he actually got hold of a knife, and if it
wasn't for my stepfather at the time, who was here thankfully,
who wrestled him to the ground, i'd probably have a
(02:27):
knife through me right now. So obviously the police were
called and we did go to the hospital and we
were sent straight home basically saying there's nothing they can do.
He's a mental health person. We can't change his medications.
We don't know him type stuff. So we came home
at about midnight, and then the next night we have
to call the police skin because this time he went
(02:48):
outside and he picked up the garden axe that was
trying to kill me with the garden acts.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And until you can't get so my mind's blowing right
now because on thinking to myself, when you're in a
dangerous situation like that, I would have thought that there'd
be some kind of mental health support that you're able
to get in, like some immediate emergency support.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And this not so, wouldn't We had to call the
police again, you know, second time within twenty four hours.
Thankfully it was the same police officers that game the
tea before. I actually heard them on the phone to
territory family put in a referral in following up saying,
you know this family, we've got other children in the
house who are at risk here. You know, we need
(03:36):
an emergency situation. I consented to him being taken away
because I just needed that break. Anyway, we couldn't really
get an answer, so the police called the paramedics and
we got escorted up to the hospital where this time
they did admit us. The mental health team did come
and see us, and they did get him off the medication.
(03:57):
They said he should never have been prescribed this particular
medication is star too young. But then we were sent
home again and I'm like, who's we have just taken
him off this medication. We're withdrawing from it pretty much
like an anattict withdrawing. Who's helping us at home? He's
monitoring us at home, you know, to work through these changes.
And we basically said he's not twelve, he doesn't qualify
(04:19):
for mental health services up here in Northern Territory. He's
two months away from being twelve. And another calling, well,
it's absolutely mind bolving because I didn't actually get a
call from Cam's yesterday. He said they declined to their
way FARERL Why because they said it's medication based, it's
(04:40):
not behavioral based.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
What are parents meant to do? What are you meant
to do?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well? I was given the twenty four hour mental health
phone number to call for advice, and I said, to
be quite frank, I said, if so much, child's coming
at me wanting to kill me again, I ain't calling
the twenty four hour health line. I'm going to be
calling the police.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, Sean, tell you this is what this is exactly
what do you do? And do you know what? Really? Sadly,
this is not the first time that I've heard a
situation like this. I've heard similar but for a child,
a young person that's much older, still under the age
(05:21):
of eighteen, but much older. And if we can't help
our young people, and if we're not able to help
them early on, early in the piece, when your young
fellow's got a mum and a family that clearly love
him and want to help him, you know, like, how
how are we not able to help people like you
at this point? I just I'm so perplexed, And it
(05:45):
absolutely is.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And you make a valid point there, and that's actually
one of the reasons I was given. He's not a
child in the foster care system, he's not a DHS child.
He actually has, you know, a family that loves him
and wants to help him. So he's not just in
the right boxes.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
So because he's not a foster child, and because he's
got a mom that loves him. He can't get help.
He can't get support. That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
That was one of the reasons I've given. It's not
like he's an abandoned child or you know, he's in
the foster care system and needs that support, because he's
got a loving family that are willing to help. But
this loving family can't find the help to help him.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Chantelle, I'm devastated for you that you are in that situation.
And look, we you're the second the second family that's
been in contact with me in the last twenty four hours.
Different situations, but situations where there is absolutely assistance required.
So look, I can't promise anything, but what I'm going
to do with your approval is pass on your details
(06:46):
to the minister. I know she's new in that job,
but see what assistance or what information we might be
able to get.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I would really be very appreciative of that because I
don't seem to be getting any where, and people want
to help, like THEO wanted to help, the hospital wanted
to help. It's just like we, you know, please for great,
the hospital staff for great, everyone's great, but the end
result is there's no help for a child who's eleven
and needs help.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Oh, chantelle, let us see what we can do. I've
got an eleven year old boy. I can't imagine how
you're feeling at the moment, So let us at least
try and get in contact with the Minister's office. I
don't know if it will help, but I know I
know that the Minister for Territory Families, Robin Carl is
(07:36):
a bloody hard worker and she's not the type of
woman who would ignore something like this, So we will
certainly do our best to try and get you in
contact with the right people.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Thank you for having a chat with me this morning.
I know it's not easy to come on here and
talk about something like this, to be so open and
honest about it. I really appreciate you having a chat
with me and making me aware of the situation.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, thank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Being appreciative, no worries at all.