Care for Stockholm syndrome in long-term captives

[featherfire]

Setting: modern AU United States, southern California area (SoCal doesn't exist, but the area is based on it).

I think I've dug myself into a very deep hole.

Comments

[elenbarathi]

OMG, "don't put a nickel in the Rant Machine less'n you want a Rant." The fate of these poor boys at the hands of 'the system' is very likely to be even crueller than their fate at the hands of their captors.

"S is 20, I is 19" - "They are physically healthy, currently unhurt " - then they're adults, not disabled, not injured, and not entitled to diddly-squat. They'll be interviewed ('interrogated' would be a better word ) by countless strangers, probably including the press; processed through the system by ticky-boxes filled out by other strangers, and then released to their own custody as soon as the system is done with them.

"They'd need to be taken to some kind of long-term care facility?"

No. They're not psychotic, brain-damaged, retarded, demented, or substance-addicted - why would they rate beds in such a facility, on the State's dime?

"I know they will need extensive therapy. They likely can't even live on their own, right?"They can join the millions of other Americans who need extensive therapy but can't get it, and

[featherfire]

Ahh wow, thank you, this is very useful. I was so... scatterbrained when I wrote my initial post, I'm glad some people could take my half-formed thoughts and make sense of them and give me information I can use, cause I wasn't even sure how to ask for what I needed. This is wonderful, thank you again!

[elenbarathi]

Very welcome, hon. Really, one of the biggest problems your young men will face is the massive indifference of the system to their needs. A lot of the young people living on the streets were special-needs children whose 'kid ticket' for aid and accommodation expired on their 18th birthdays.

[featherfire]

Wait, so... where would they be staying while all this paperwork and red tape was happening? Someone would call K and be like, hey we found your brother... where do they stick him after the initial rescue?

[anonymous]

Agreeing with previous commenters -- S and I are adults, they're not likely to get any kind of long-term inpatient care or follow-up from social services. If they're lucky, they will get some short-term help from a social worker who may be able to find them somewhere to stay (a social worker would likely encourage I to stay with K, and would likely encourage S to do so as well if that's an option, especially if the alternative is a homeless shelter.)

It's possible that there may be some very limited emergency funds available to help them acquire clothing and other things they need. K may have the ability to keep the media away from them if he takes charge of S and I; otherwise, there's no one to prevent the media from jumping on the story. That may actually be helpful if it leads to donations of money from sympathetic viewers. In that scenario, K is likely to spend a lot of time pursuing services (therapy, job training, food stamps) for S and I, which is hard and frustrating. If their captor had any assets (house, significant

[featherfire]

I'm not sure if anonymous commenters get replies to their comments, but just in case, thank you! This was quite useful and I'll need to keep all of this in mind, now I have so much info I need to remember rather than too little! But it's great, and thank you again!