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Educating a child with mental health issues is a challenge

charles-aubrey-rogers-wasatch-academy

Those of you who have a child with special needs, mental health issues, learning or physical disabilities know how hard it is for that child to earn a high school degree. There are countless road blocks, problems, run ins with teachers over homework etc. Providing Charles with the support to finish high school was so difficult and expensive, it was a full time job in and of itself.

We enlisted the help of an educational consultant, Martha Kolbe who has since passed away. I would highly recommend that step. While we ultimately had to choose a boarding school, there are often choices within your area that would help your child. These consultants often know of small home schooling groups that take on children with challenges as well as middle and high schools that were not on your radar at all.

Charles was very intelligent but sleeping issues, anxiety and depression, and ultimately drug abuse later on, made finding a school a monumental challenge. But he got it done at the age of 19 and he got a high school degree from Wasatch Academy.

This sounds really silly. But I was glad I was able to put that he graduated from high school in his obituary. It meant something to have helped him accomplish it.

Published by

Anne Moss Rogers

I am an emotionally naked mental health speaker, and author of the Book, Diary of a Broken Mind and co-author with Kim O'Brien PhD, LICSW of Emotionally Naked: A Teacher's Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk. I raised two boys, Richard and Charles, and lost my younger son, Charles to addiction and suicide on June 5, 2015. I help people foster a culture of connection to prevent suicide, reduce substance misuse and find life after loss. My motivational mental health keynotes, training and workshop topics include suicide prevention, addiction, mental illness, anxiety, coping strategies/resilience, and grief. As talented and funny as Charles was, letting other people know they matter was his greatest gift. And now the legacy I try and carry forward in my son's memory. Mental Health Speakers Website. Trained in ASIST and trainer for the evidence-based 4-hour training for everyone called safeTALK.

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