A home for Amber

Amber Reynolds often gets a “new-to-her” lunch bag when she goes on shopping trips in Denton with her mother.

At Twice as Nice resale shop on Bell Avenue, Amber rifles through several lunch bags and settles on one decorated with rainbow-colored skulls. As other items in the store get her attention — a bin of body butter, a little bag of play money — she tucks them inside the lunch bag for safekeeping.

Her mother, Angela Biggs, knows her 26-year-old daughter well. Amber was born with a brain injury that profoundly affected how she grew and developed. Over the years, doctors diagnosed, misdiagnosed and re-diagnosed Amber before settling on severe mental retardation and severe bipolar disorder with psychosis.

Their lives are anything but settled, however. Biggs has battled the state over Amber's care at the Denton State Supported Living Center for more than a year. She wants to extract her daughter from the state school and find a group home in a neighborhood setting where Amber can live with other developmentally disabled people.

Angela Biggs keeps an eye on her daughter Amber Reynolds during a visit at the Good Samaritan Society. 

Her long-running battle with the state of Texas is playing out in Denton County Probate Court, and Biggs worries she is losing. Her case opens a window into the complicated relationship between the 447 people who live at the state school on State School Road in far south Denton and their families.
“It’s like living on an island, no matter which way you turn for help,” Biggs says.

When the two women step up to the checkout counter, Biggs reminds Amber that the clerk needs to scan the items zipped up in the bag.

Biggs shares a laugh with the clerk about the little bag of play money tucked inside the lunch bag.

“We need to pay for this [play] money,” Biggs says. The joke is lost on Amber.

The gauntlet

Amber is a happy and curious young woman. She can put together five or six words when she’s motivated to communicate. Most of the time, she speaks in simple two- and three-word declarative sentences and questions.

Angela Biggs, left, and her daughter Amber Reynolds go
shopping for clothes at Twice as Nice Resale of Denton. 

“C’mere,” she says, holding a stranger’s arm to invite her to browse the resale shop, thumbing through wallets and picking up housewares.

Her mother helps her try on a big purple hat.

“How about this?” Biggs asks. “Purple hat lady.”

Amber tilts her head as if posing for the camera and grins a toothy smile, her eyes sparkling.

Occasionally, Amber can be aggressive. Biggs could manage her daughter’s outbursts when she was little. But as she grew, the aggression became harder to manage. At about age 10, Amber was big enough to really hurt her older sister, Jennifer, and younger brother, Taylor, when she lashed out. She scared Jennifer and Taylor.

 Biggs knew Amber needed help. Biggs and her now ex-husband, Tony Reynolds, agreed to share custody with the state to get funding for Amber's care.

When the state has custody, professional caregivers make hundreds of  daily decisions, big and small, that affect the person’s health and development. Parents and family members can visit, of course, and they also may retain some legal responsibility as a guardian.

A guardian is legally responsible for a person who is unable to manage his or her own affairs. For some people with a severe intellectual disability, the guardian may also guide medical and psychiatric care, not just the ward’s financial affairs.

Biggs has learned how fine a line guardians must walk. When Amber was still a teenager, she was mistreated at a large group home. So, Biggs and Amber's father fought successfully to regain custody. She lived with her father for a while and bounced through several other living arrangements for a decade. Then, in June 2013, Amber suffered a psychiatric breakdown and was admitted to Terrell State Hospital, which treats mental illness.

Amber Reynolds, left, sits next to her father, Tony Reynolds,
as her mother, Angela Biggs, snaps a photo of them during a
picnic at Buffalo Valley Event Center. 

The hospital changed Amber's medication and gave her an antidepressant that triggered a manic episode, according to records Biggs obtained and shared with the Denton Record-Chronicle.

Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which operates the Terrell hospital and the state living centers, declined to comment on Amber's case, citing privacy laws.

Biggs questioned her daughter's treatment in Terrell, a small town in Kaufman County about 30 miles east of Dallas. Four months after the manic episode, the hospital deemed Amber stable enough to be discharged after putting her on a five-drug cocktail to manage her anxiety and manic episodes. But Amber was back in the hospital within a month and eventually was readmitted to Terrell.

Biggs continued to question her treatment. In February 2014, the state found a spot for Amber at the Denton State Supported Living Center.

Amber Reynolds, left, puts on shoes in her room as her mother,
Angela Biggs, waits for her to get ready so they can leave for the park.

Biggs advocated for her daughter during the crisis and lost trust in her caregivers at the Terrell hospital. The caregivers, in turn, said she undermined their decisions. By the time Amber arrived in Denton, a Collin County judge had blocked Biggs from making any more decisions about her daughter’s psychiatric care.

"It's like having one arm tied behind your back," Biggs says.

Despite the judge's decision, she remained Amber's guardian.

Beth Mitchell, an attorney with Disability Rights of Texas, which represents people like Amber, declined to comment on the case. But she said the purpose of guardianship is to be actively involved in the disabled person's life and not rubber-stamp the actions of state caregivers.

Some guardians are like Biggs. They know their wards, visit them regularly and participate in planning meetings. Many others, however, do not, Mitchell said.

"Maybe a few are actively involved and will challenge the recommendations," Mitchell said. "With the others who just go along with the staff, what's the point of being a guardian?"

Biggs communicates regularly with Amber's caregivers at the state living center in Denton. Over the past few years, the Denton staff has been tapering Amber off the drug regimen prescribed at the Terrell hospital. The Denton staff has had some success helping her with daily routines that keep her calm, allowing reductions in medications.

However, the psychiatrist overseeing her case also wrote that Amber likely needs powerful, psychotropic medicines to remain stable.

The medicines have had side effects. An endocrinologist and a cardiologist are monitoring Amber's health, Biggs said. She wants to trust the care her daughter is receiving, but she finds that hard with all that has gone wrong over the years.

“I put my trust in people and then step back,” Biggs says. “But I do have a responsibility, too.”

“I know I don’t have all the answers,” she adds.  (Click to Continue)

Full Article & Source:
A home for Amber