Canyon Acres Children and Family Successes…

Charlie’s Story - Who Knew What Fishing Could Do!

A Success Story of the Residential Treatment Center, Therapeutic Behavioral Services, and Wraparound at Canyon Acres Working Together to Successfully Reunify a Child with His Family

There once was a boy who loved to fish and who had one small wish - to fish with his family.

Charlie was born into a loving family, the oldest child of four children. From the day he was born, his parents realized that he had special needs. Charlie was born with a medical condition that prevented him from going to the bathroom normally. When he was only 5 days old, he required surgery and multiple subsequent surgeries as a toddler, but never fully healed. As he grew older, he continued to need to wear diapers and refused to use the bathroom. He started to yell and throw objects at his parents when they asked him about using the bathroom. Once Charlie started school, he got teased everyday by the kids in his class because he was smelly from not using the restroom. He had no friends. His parents became stressed and started fighting because they did not know how to manage their son’s behavior. They used alcohol to cope with the stress. Charlie began to lash out and ran away from home many times. Social Services became involved and decided his parents could not care for him. His parents were devastated and their family started to fall apart. His Mother had an accident while driving under the influence and went to prison. His Father became the single parent to Charlie and his younger siblings. It was decided, to keep Charlie safe, that he would be placed in a group home. Charlie was only 7 years old.

Charlie came to Canyon Acres Residential Treatment Center when he was 8 years old. It was his 5th group home within a year. From the first day Charlie was placed at Canyon Acres, he was violent and tried to hurt adults and children. He refused to shower or use the restroom, so his foul odor worsened and he became closed off and ran away a lot. The child care counselors, his therapist, day treatment staff, and his TBS coach pulled together. They knew Charlie was scared and missed his family and believed his behaviors were probably his way of communicating that he needed help.

Over the next 3 years the Canyon Acres staff began to help Charlie learn how to deal with his challenges. His Coach found that talking to Charlie about fishing helped calm him down when he was angry and rewarding him for positive behaviors with fishing prizes motivated him to change. Many of the staff became very educated about fishing techniques from Charlie and he began to identify himself as a special “fishmaster.” For the first time in Charlie’s life, his self esteem began to soar.

His therapist began doing family therapy with his Father and soon Charlie began visiting his family overnight on the weekends. His TBS coach taught his Father some of the techniques to help Charlie calm down and encouraged special family time that involved fishing. By the time the holidays came around, Charlie had shown tremendous progress with his anger. His Father had learned effective skills to help Charlie manage his anger in a family home. His social worker decided it was time for Charlie to go home and be successful in his family.

The process of Charlie going home didn’t stop there. His social worker knew he was going to need a lot of help to remember the skills he learned at Canyon Acres Residential Treatment Center and manage the pressures of living with his family again. Wraparound services were provided and a TBS coach continues to provide weekly support to help Charlie and his entire family identify their strengths and needs. When his mother was released from prison, she too was taught the same skills the staff taught the father. This was the first time in many years Charlie’s entire family was all in one place.

One summer day, Charlie and his parents called his TBS coach from a fishing boat out in the Pacific Ocean. You could hear the sounds of children laughing and the ocean breeze. The family called to say they were having a wonderful time on their first fishing trip together as a family and had many more planned for the future to come. Charlie’s father simply said, “Thank you.” Looks like for a boy who had a wish to fish, it came true.

Charlie is now 14, and is much better. He now takes care of cleaning himself in the restroom, although he needs to wear a diaper most of the time. Charlie and the staff are hopeful the entire family will soon be able to live together under one roof.