Victoria Finds Treatment at Drake

After reading your story, I feel compelled to share our experience with the Drake Institute. After going through extremely lengthy and thorough research, we placed our hopes for getting help for Tori (age 7 at the time) with the Drake Institute. We knew we did not want to go the route of medication as we had read about all of the bad side effects and we felt this “wild child” had enough problems to deal with.

We were never disappointed by any aspect of the Drake Institute. Tori improved throughout treatment and she continues to improve. We know this positive change is from the Drake as we were not implementing any other interventions at the time. The brainmapping (which if we had not done and used meds, they would have amplified her ADHD behaviors) Neurofeedback, and FastForWord, combined with behavior modification and therapy for the family changed our lives. During treatment we experienced a family trauma which put an extra emotional and financial burden on us. Drake went beyond the call of duty in making adjustments for our situation.

We will be forever grateful to Drake for helping Tori reach her true potential. She sits and reads, her behavior is markedly different in academic and social settings and we have a child with her true personality, not a “drugged” child. She has received the citizen of the month award, is invited to take part in plays, etc.

I am surprised by your comments about other people having the same negative experience at Drake. I often heard just the opposite when I was in the waiting room and have heard numerous positive comments from others who had been referred to Drake by friends, teachers, Doctors, etc., as we had been.

While people discuss the cost of the program, I don’t think you can compare the cost of taking medication (possibly for the rest of her life), potential side effects from medication (I have a friend whose son now has a tic from his meds) and when you compare the quality and quantity of the treatment program, it is much less costly than any other similar type of program. (But then there isn’t any program that even comes close so there really is no comparison.)

Perhaps our expectations were not the same as yours. We were told at the very beginning that most children will respond to treatment in a positive way – some will not. We knew it was not just up to Drake to help Tori – we must all work together. I give Drake an A + for their part.

Momoko

Our case manager, David, and Momoko’s “big sisters”, Peace, Grace and Rachel, provided a truly warm and nurturing environment for Momoko to really feel comfortable and welcome. This allowed her to relax, have fun, and do the best work for her therapists. The overall “game plan” for Momoko’s treatment was outstanding and executed flawlessly.

Our key goal prior to treatment was to improve Momoko’s auditory processing abilities. That has definitely accomplished. Through it is hard to quantify, Momoko’s speech communication has improved, particularly in the last six weeks has been nothing but impressive. She now speaks with increased clarity, proper grammar and sentence structure, and importantly, with much more confidence. She is now capable of initiating and conducting a “normal” conversation with spontaneous input and interaction. There has been more focus and concentration at school resulting in useful and logical processing of absorbed information. Unfortunately, Momoko’s first grade teacher medically retired in March and could not provide any additional input, but her full-time LAUSD-assigned aide has also noticed and commented on these subtle, but remarkable, positive changes.

Momoko still faces many obstacles in her daily challenges with Autism. But all the tools and efforts of the Drake Institute have definitely provided her with the decisive edge to overcome this disability. This program was the breakthrough treatment we were looking for, the necessary traction and catalyst which gives her the critical foundation to succeed academically, socially, and independently, especially as LAUSD continues to reduce its services and assistance to Momoko.

Wayne Y., Father of Momoko

Kelsey

We heard about The Drake Institute through Dr. Laura radio advertisements and a family member, so we decided to attend a weekend sessions with Dr. Velkoff to learn abut the care programs available for our daughter Kelsey. Kelsey had been through EVERY imaginable treatment, test and program know to help her with ADHD as well as her other problems including compulsive behaviors, autistic tendencies and self-care issues. After the first hour in Dr. Velkoff’s seminar, we knew that we had found the most promising treatment we had come across in over ten years of trying to help our daughter.

We signed her up immediately and started her sessions within a couple of weeks. Although we were cautiously optimistic, our hopes were soon reality. After about 4-6 sessions we already started to see changes in our daughter. The compulsive behaviors were starting to go away and in general our life-long immature, scattered daughter was starting to behave like a “normal” 14-year old. For the first time in her life she was taking care of herself (she has lost over 10 pounds!!) concerned about her clothing choices, self-care, etc.

Perhaps the most important change we started to see was what was happening with her at school. She was starting to form friendships more easily, and although she was always a good student, things were changing and she was starting to perform academically at the level we always knew she could. Kelsey was completing her homework independently for the firs time in her life! She was organizing her time and papers and assignments from school without help, and she was finally starting to have more success in math because she was able to focus on the instruction for the entire lesson and not just the first five minutes!

Because our daughter started the treatment at age 14, we feel, for her, this was an ideal age because she completely understood why she was doing it and even expressed “The Drake Institute has changed my life”.

As educators for many years now, and the parent of a child with ADHD, we know and have lived the hardships parents experience when they feel they have nowhere to turn to help their child other than giving them a pill each day. The Drake Institute did change our daughter’s life AND the life of our family as well. She is no longer on any medication and is on the road to a normal and successful life. We will be forever grateful to Dr. Velkoff and his staff for the care and love they gave our daughter.

Krista and Tim C.