Thomas Belanger Doesn’t Like Therapy
February 7, 2008 by impqueen
North Andover, Mass. - Diruhi Mattian was making a therapeutic house call last night when things went very wrong. A little after 6 p.m., someone from Thomas Belanger’s apartment called 911. Belanger, 18, had stabbed his psychotherapist in the torso and then attempted to slit his own throat. Mattian, 53, was pronounced dead a short time later. Belanger is in the hospital and is expected to survive.
Diruhi Mattian was director of the Lawrence FLEX program, which is funded by the state Department of Mental Health Child and Adolescent Services. Its website says that “The services are primarily aimed at keeping the children safely at home with their families, in their community, out of residential programs and away from hospital care.” Mattian, a licensed clinical social worker, also ran her own non-profit organization called Aved Therapy that dealt mainly with panic and anxiety-based disorders.
Investigators working the scene are focusing their attention in an area between the living room and kitchen of the small apartment, which is listed under the names Elaine and Cassandra Belanger. Cassandra Belanger, Thomas’ sister, was at home at the time of the killing and is the likely 911 caller. Police have also taken a computer from the home and towed two vehicles from the scene, a white Toyota Corolla and a white Chevrolet sedan with Jesus and pro-life stickers.
Belanger has been formally charged with murder and is expected to be arraigned sometime today.
9:33 am on February 7th, 2008
Another unsuccessful suicide attempt. He deserves to suffer, and not get off that easy.
9:41 am on February 7th, 2008
I am pretty sure I got his Myspace, but I cannot verify. It’s pretty easy to find the one I am talking about. Same area, same name, same age.
9:43 am on February 7th, 2008
I’ve got that one too, Morb, but I just dunno if that’s him. Think we should link it anyway, or wait?
9:48 am on February 7th, 2008
It doesn’t reveal anything spectacular anyway. I’d wait. Besides, the only thing it will be good for is a picture of him, if it is him.
10:11 am on February 7th, 2008
Let me guess, he stopped taking his medications?
1:05 pm on February 7th, 2008
Excellent chance of that. Noncompliance is a huge problem. I would rather see the money spent on this FLEX program spent on long-term residential care for people who need it.
1:54 pm on February 7th, 2008
The problem with the ones that require meds is this:
Off meds they are sick.
On meds they are well.
Sick people need meds.
Well people don’t.
They aren’t sick “now”.
They don’t need their meds.
Only sick people take meds.
12:40 pm on February 8th, 2008
You got it. And lots of these people are not so well on meds that they don’t need help remembering to take them.
6:47 pm on February 9th, 2008
My heart bleeds for the pain everyone is suffering.
Please be kind and pray for everyone involved. He will get the help he needs now. The only flaw is that after a certain age you don’t get the services that you need. Society has us looking down on people that need meds and that makes them feel worse.
People that help others are always in danger and need to be thanked more. This is just one case that went bad, They help so many.
Thomas is a gentle soul that has been troubled for a long time.
8:14 pm on February 9th, 2008
His 16 year-old sister witnessed the stabbing:
The Belanger family appeared to have been under a great deal of stress, the Herald has learned. Thomas Belanger’s single mother Elaine, 47, a cosmetologist, filed a plea last June in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to be forgiven $76,500 in student loans after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her financial crisis and her illness, she claimed in court documents, “adversely affected the lives and health of†her two children.
According to a North Andover police report, Elaine Belanger was in the hospital Wednesday night when Mattian made her house call. Thomas Belanger and his sister Cassandra were quarreling, so the social worker called their aunt Jean Putnam to come and stay with them. Putnam showed up hours later, only to tell Mattian she was going to leave with Cassandra because she “did not feel safe staying in the apartment†with Thomas, police said.
In September 2002, a law enforcement source told the Herald, Thomas Belanger, then 14, was involved in an episode that led to multiple charges of assault with a knife and a fire extinguisher, as well as assault on a public official. The charges, part of a sealed juvenile record, were later dismissed, the source said.
8:20 pm on February 9th, 2008
Sad history for Thomas:
Gallagher confirmed reports that Belanger suffers from severe bipolar disorder and has a history of hospitalizations, suicide attempts and psychiatric lockdowns at Lawrence General Hospital. Attorney James Krasnoo said his client’s illness is rooted in physical and sexual abuse from his father when he was very young, which at one point resulted in extreme head trauma from having his head smashed on the ground. At 3, while the father was in jail, his mother ran away with he and his sister to escape the abuse and legally changed their name, reports say. Belanger would later attend Lighthouse School in North Chelmsford that works with youth with a variety of disabilities.
6:36 pm on February 15th, 2008
I knew this kid and he was very sweet and had a lot of family issues, both him and his sister. He worked at a summer camp for children and seemed to enjoy it from what I saw.
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