Mom of bipolar son helps other parents

By DANIELLE LYNCH

Karen Brenneman cried the whole way home from the hospital after dropping off her son there. The first time her son, Jeremy, now 16, was hospitalized was when he was 5. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mood illness described as manic-depressive.
But the diagnosis didn’t come quickly.
“That’s difficult because in the beginning you want to know but after a while you just want to treat it,” Brenneman said.
With her own son, Brenneman said doctors did over 30 different trials of medicines and only two worked. And with a mental illness, she noted that doctors can’t do a blood test – it’s mostly trial and error.
“With each new medicine, we hoped it would be the one,” she said.
Although there have been no longitudinal studies done, approximately 1 million children and teenagers are estimated to suffer from this disorder, according to Susan Resko, executive director at the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation.
Brenneman said the issues with Jeremy have prompted and changed her whole focus in life.
“I am who I am today because of what I experience with my son … I’m very honored and blessed to help others,” Brenneman said. “For me, I’m thankful to have gone through all of this because it made me who I am.”
Brenneman was an advocate in Chester County for three years. And for the past two years, she’s worked at Child and Family Focus, an agency based in Valley Forge, where she supervises other advocates.
At Child and Family in Focus, the advocates support families with special-needs children. The advocates help not only with children but also the parents, Brenneman said.
In addition to the advocate component of Child and Family Focus, there’s therapeutic foster care, which is extended care of a special-needs child.
“It’s a chance for the child to be in the community,” she said, instead of being in restrictive environment. “It’s almost like taking in a niece or nephew into the home.”
Separate from her job, Brenneman decided to do respite, or temporary care, at her home. Respite care is typically when a family takes in a special-needs child during a weekend or overnight during a crisis.
While doing work for Parents Involved Network, Brenneman began a program called “Sibshops” which is a recreational program for children between the ages of 8 and 13 who have special-needs siblings.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to interact with other kids,” she said. “The kids provide each other therapy.”
Often parents tend to be more focused on their child that has special needs, and the typical child, like her son, Derek, now 19, feel left out, Brenneman said.
Families with special-needs children struggle at times.
“There’s a ton of issues that come along with this that put stress on a family in addition to the money or the every day wear-and-tear of dealing with a child that has tantrums,” Brenneman said. “It wears you out; you are too tired to build on your relationship with your marital spouse.”
Then there’s the stress that comes from extended family members.
“Until you live it, you don’t really get it,” Brenneman said.
Parents with special-needs children often feel isolated and that’s why support groups are important, according to Brenneman.
Another difficult area for special-needs families is dealing with schools.
Jeremy was kicked out of three preschools and then went to Devereux Day School for early intervention, Brenneman said.
“School has never been easy for him,” Brenneman said.
At 5, Jeremy was hospitalized for the first time. Then he went to a residential treatment home at 8 for six months. At 11, he was back at the residential treatment home for another seven months, his mother said.
Next, Jeremy’s parents enrolled him in a faith-based wilderness camp in Lock Haven, Clinton County, for two years where he was taught life skills and lost 70 pounds.
“It was incredible,” Brenneman said of her son’s progress.
Jeremy is now in enrolled in an intensive learning support classroom in a school district in Southern Chester County, his mother said. She said the district has good intentions, but it’s a work in progress. And the special needs children don’t have true access to peers, she said.
“They are still very isolated and really feel it,” Brenneman said.
In addition to being enrolled in a learning support classroom, Jeremy attends a vocational technology school for automotive learning, his mother said. And he does volunteer work at an animal shelter.

For more information about Child and Family Focus, visit http://www.childandfamilyfocus.org/
For more information about Sibshops, e-mail Karen Brenneman at kbrenneman@childandfamilyfocus.org
For more information about childhood bipolar disorder, visit http://www.bpkids.org/ and http://www.bipolarchild.com.

To contact staff writer Danielle Lynch, send an e-mail to dlynch@dailylocal.com.