By Naomi Garretson, Mother of Stephen
The Clermont FAST TRAC Wraparound process was a great success for our family. We are now able to work better as a unit and listen to each other more effectively. Our family has been through other collaborative efforts in several other states. Finally, after moving here to Clermont County, we really made progress.
I think having people listen to the concerns of everyone in the process made an enormous difference. Things were not always easy in Wraparound, but the final outcome has been wonderful. My son is doing amazing in school now and family life has become more typical. Prior to entering Wraparound, we were a very dysfunctional family and not happy with many things, and I was very defensive of my family’s situation.
Given the fact that we had tried some other things similar to Wraparound, and the fact that they did not work, made it very stressful for me to go into the process again. However, after many visits we realized that this really was going to be different. Wraparound gave us the opportunity to have so many people involved that cared about us. They were involved even when there was no meeting; team members called and checked in with us “just because.” I had called members of the team frustrated on many occasions and was able to process through the issues much better than I could have before. Now we use the tools and skills we learned and occasionally help other families with the process.
