Concern for Daughter's Friend

[OzDreams]

Hi,

My wife befriend a woman recently who has 4 children, 1 of whom is the same age as my daughter and now attending the same school. They had recently moved to our area and didn't know too many people. We thought that it would be good if our daughter would become friends with their son as we were told that he tends to isolate himself and doesn't interact much.

Well the school week has only just commenced and our daughter and he have been texting each other on the phone over the weekend. My wife and I have seen the messages and we are concerned by many of the things he has written.

He talks about being treated poorly by his family; about being hit and slapped. He talks about harming his family, killing his parents and siblings, and he talks about sitting in a hot car for over 3 hours as his parents have just ignored him and left him sweat in it. When our daughter told him to open the door and get out, he told her he wasn't going to do it and just stay in the car.

He said some pretty scary stuff, and after talking to my wife, we decided that we should let the boys mother know of what was being said. This morning, the mother called my wife and verbally attacked her. Telling her it is none of our business. My wife said that he is saying these things to our daughter, so it is our business and we were just concerned for the boy. That he needed help. The mother said that he has been to the police and is getting help medically.

Is there anything else we can do? We are concerned that he is going to harm himself or someone else. We just want to see if we can get him some help.

[Sophia-RO]

Hello @OzDreams , it sounds like you are understandably quite concerned about your daughter's friend. Seems like it is quite a tough situation and that you have been really considerate of your daughter's friend and their safety. I am sorry to hear that his mother had verbally attacked your wife when you and your wife had good intentions in looking out for your daughters friend. It sounds like it would have been quite tough for your daughter to hear about what their friend has been going through. Do you have any concerns about your daughter and how she has been feeling?

You mentioned wanting some further advice, so I have sent you an email to let you know about the next steps to take to help keep this young person safe. Please keep an eye out for it shortly . If you are ever concerned about the young person's immediate safety, please call 000 for support. 

[Bre-RO]

Hey there @OzDreams 

I hope it's okay to hop on your thread check ink-in with you. 

This sounds like an incredibly concerning situation to be in, and I can imagine you'd be worried about your daughter as well. So if there's anything we can do to look into support for her, please let us know, and we can send through some services. 

You're doing the right thing by seeking support for your daughter's friend. We've sent another email today to let you know what we can do to help with this process.