Affordable Housing - Catholic Community Services

A Mother’s
Story:
‘Catholic Community
Services became
my lifeline’
Lisa Jones’ oldest daughter,
Megan, suffered brain damage
from an accidental drug
overdose right after her 13th birthday.
Until then, the girl had been highly
successful, outgoing, and loving. After
the overdose, Lisa noticed strange
behavioral problems developing in
her daughter that ultimately resulted
in a frightening psychotic change.
Physicians told her that this was the
beginning presentation of a mental
illness. “Bipolar,” “schizophrenia,”
“borderline personality” – the labels
changed with Megan’s presentations.
Lisa was also told that this
could not have been caused by the
overdose, although Megan had seized
and had been in a coma. Lisa recalls
one physician’s words after Megan’s
first discharge from a psychiatric
unit: “Your daughter has less than
a 50 percent chance of surviving
adolescence. You are in for a bumpy
ride, and you need to accept it.”
How does a parent accept a
pending death sentence for a child
Lisa refused to accept it, although
the doctor was right about the
bumpy ride. Megan “melted into a
fugue world of multiple psychotropic
medications,” Lisa said, and for four
years “911 lived at our house or my
daughter lived in repeated short-term
psychiatric inpatient care. Voices in
her head told her to do terrible harm
to her body, and medications bloated
Lisa Jones and her daughter, Megan Gaines.
her small body to 200 pounds. We
(her family) lived in daily fear of harm
for us or for her. It was a nightmare
that we could not wake from.”
Two years into this nightmare, the
family moved back to Washington
state from a neighboring state. A
month after the move, Megan’s
behavior deteriorated rapidly. She
became impulsive and violent,
experienced extreme highs and
lows, and harmed herself. The
hospital put Lisa in touch with the
state’s Department of Social and
Health Services, and a caseworker
there referred her to the Catholic
Community Services office in
Tacoma. CCS’s Family Preservation
System team quickly stepped in.
“CCS became my lifeline,” Lisa
said. “They held my hand when the
strain of living like this – trying to
keep my child alive, trying to access
help, protect her and her younger
sister, and keep our family together
and still work to support us all –
almost broke me. At one point, when
my family begged me to give up and
commit my daughter, CCS helped me
find the strength to believe in a better
tomorrow.”
Lisa said the CCS team did not
make the family – with its frequent
needs for crisis intervention, respite,
case aides, and other assistance – feel
like a problem. “What was always
provided was calm, caring support
to get us through those times, an
amazing flexibility to meet everchanging
needs, and a belief in our
family’s strength and love,” Lisa said.
With CCS support, Megan’s family
convinced her physicians to evaluate
her for a potential organic brain injury
and indeed, they found that she had
suffered significant brain damage.
The physicians stopped treating
her with medications and turned to
neuro-rehabilitation.
Megan, now a young adult, works
for the Family Preservation System
in Tacoma as a Community Support
Specialist (CSS) and Youth Partner. In
that position, she works closely with
the team of professionals supporting
the child and family. Community
support specialists teach appropriate
social skills and those that prepare
youth for adulthood; mentor youth;
and provide in-home support to the
family. Said Cheryl WiIliams, the
CCS therapist: “Megan is a wonderful
young woman, with a life of potential
ahead of her.”
©PHOTO BY MIKE.COM
20 Samaritan Magazine Fall 2005