Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 14, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 3 residential placement we're aware of, so we're trying to make this work. In some ways, my family has been extraordinarily fortunate in the support we've gotten for our five children on the autism spectrum, as many parents could only dream of getting this far into the convoluted be- havioral healthcare system. Yet, as much progress as we've made, Desmond is far from getting exactly what he needs. Today, when people discuss solutions to fix the systemic problems in behavior- al health care, my thoughts dri to those who already sought out help and couldn't find it: the homeless, the incarcerated, those suffering in silence at home, those who died. I think of my son. is crisis remains. - Brad Kane, editor Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com Staff Writers Timothy Doyle tdoyle@wbjournal.com (Real estate, higher education) Kevin Koczwara kkoczwara@wbjournal.com (Manufacturing, energy & environment)) Contributors Giselle Rivera-Flores, Laura Finaldi, Monica Benevides, Alan Earls, Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon Photgraphers Matt Wright, Edd Cote Research Director, Stephanie Meagher, smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Senior Account Executive Yasmin Nasrullah, Ynasrullah@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Human Resources Manager, Tracy Rodwill, trodwill@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Manager, Sara Ward, sward@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Account Receivable Specialist, Patty Harris, pharris@ nebusinessmedia.com Audience Development Manager, Leah Allen, lallen@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Tom Curtin tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October, and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. 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Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com Worcester Business Journal WBJ A division of: I f you were in the McDonald's parking lot in Auburn on May 19, you likely spotted the bearded man full-on ugly crying for 15+ minutes in his car, while his 10-year-old daughter glanced up occasionally from her iPad, mildly con- cerned. at was me. My wife had just called during the com- mute home, to say the May Institute had approved our 13-year-old son for placement into its residential school. Waves of relief ra- diated off of me as the realization of what our family had endured for a year might finally reach a new beginning. at relief was imme- diately followed by the crushing guilt of what this meant: Our son, our sweet Desmond, would no longer live at home with his family. My body couldn't handle the intensity, and I broke down. In the WBJ issue of Nov. 22, 2021, which like this edition was focused on health care, I detailed the special kind of hell Desmond, my wife Sarah, our other four children, and I had suffered as we sought the best treatment for Desmond's mental health problems. At the time, he had been a patient at Boston Children's Hospital, waiting since July 2021 in a crisis state until a bed became available at a temporary behavioral treatment facility. at bed did open up, and Desmond was placed into a Westborough hospital in Janu- ary. It was, predictably, a disaster. Sarah and I knew these facilities only keep patients for a couple of weeks, return them to what they see as baseline, and send them home. is stay was particularly horrible, as the Westborough providers immediately tore up the prescrip- tion schedule we had spent months carefully curating with his psychiatrist, neurologist, and the providers at Boston Children's. Des- mond came out of Westborough worse than he went in. Our goal, though, was never a temporary treatment facility. e goal was permanent residential placement into a school like the May Institute, which we thought would be the solution. As a parent, it's all but impossible to admit to yourself that the best life for your child is in a living arrangement outside your home. Desmond's long-time neurologist had floated this possibility well before the COVID pandemic exacerbated his problems, but residential was part of a suite of options and something to hopefully avoid with the right mix of school, at-home therapies, and medi- cation. Sarah and I didn't fully come around to it as a path forward until well into his third month at Boston Children's, when it was clear he posed a real threat to his siblings' safety. Still, the gravity of the decision weighed heavily on us and Desmond, who kept asking if the people at his eventual residential house would be his new mom and dad. Once our home school district in Wilbra- ham agreed to residential placement, a monumental feat in itself, we had to find a school to accept him, which was an uphill battle as the entire human service sector is facing a severe staff shortage. To aid in his placement, we had to show Desmond was no longer in a behavioral crisis, and we couldn't take him back to the emergency room, even though his occasional frenetic behaviors forced Sarah and I to create a complex web of safety precautions. I slept in his room every night, using my body and an old mattress placed against his door as a barricade between us and the rest of the sleeping members of our family. Even though I lived in constant fear the wrong sound would set him off, most nights Desmond simply wanted to cuddle or talk about Disney. is went on for five months. When the time came this July for Desmond's placement into the May In- stitute residential school, it did feel like a new beginning, as awful as it was to leave him behind. at new beginning was short-lived, though. Within his first week, Desmond landed in the emergen- cy room, as a sound had panicked him and he slammed his head against con- crete. at was followed by allegations of abuse, more than two dozen errors in his medication administration, includ- ing once when he was given a poten- tially fatal double dose of a controlled substance, and meetings with school leaders who promise to do better. Now, we're stuck. While we could attempt to move Desmond to anoth- er school, there's no solution beyond Crisis, one year later C O N T E N T S 4 Central Mass. In Brief 5 Worcester 300 trivia 14 Focus on Health care 19 The List: Top hospitals 21 Column: The Hustle is Real 23 Know How 24 Movers & Shakers 25 Opinion 28 Shop Talk: New England Botanic Garden 16 Improving health care America spends the most money on health care and yet has subpar outcomes. A WBJ panel of experts saw potential fixes to the problems. 23 Tips for healthcare-minded entrepreneurs Know How advice columnist Madison Wellman gives five tips for those business people looking to tap into the $70-billion healthcare services and technology market. I N T H I S I S S U E W CORRECTION: A story entitled "Battery boom" in the Oct. 31 WBJ special edition Fact Book: Doing Business in Central Mass. incorrectly referred to Yan Wang's last name as Yang twice. Brad and Desmond Kane took this photo after seeing the movie "Lightyear" and the day before Desmond was placed into a residential school.

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