Hi wendy

I am a uk citizen married to a us citizen and living in the us.

My wife is legal guardian to her 10 year old nephew, she has had him since he was 5 months old. He was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome as an infant. He is currently being assesed for biploar.
We have the same experience as you, the violence and moods.
The only thing he doesn't do is try to harm himself.
Like your son he is a sweet boy at other times.
He is currently in a childrens psychiatric hospital for treatment and because of concern for the saftey of our 22 month old daughter.

My wife and I are considering moving back to England but we are not sure of the services available to him there. The reason I'm replying to your post is because of your comment...
In the UK if we call the police we will lose custody of him so that will be a very last resort.

Here in our city we have a wonderfull police force, they have been called out to our nephew several times. Last time we had 8 police officers here and six paramedics, he wanted to take them all on. They eventually had to restrain him. They were called because he was chasing my wife down the street and trying to hit her with his metal scooter while she was holding the baby.
I was at work at the time.

The police here are very supportive and one officer has befriended our nephew, giving him his card and personal mobile number to call him anytime.
One time when he was called out he took him for a ride in his police car to help calm him.
Another time the police cuffed him, put him in their car and escorted my wife to his psychiatric appointment because he tried to strangle her with her seatbelt while she was driving.

Nothing has been said about losing custody of him unless we can't maintain the baby's saftey and then we could lose her.
So of course we are taking every precaution.

So if you can't call the police, who can you call?

Here we have emergency crisis intervention counselors that come to the home during a crisis; however, if the situation is too violent or the intervention team is understaffed then the advice is to call the police to implement a 51/50.

We are having second thoughts about moving back if we could lose custody just because of calling the police.


Here is a site that my wife recommends this site bpkids ****
they offer support groups and a wealth of information.
Our hospital recommended it.

Hope it helps

Mick & Kellie