Families giving up custody of mentally ill kids, GAO says

The Chicago Tribune ^ | April 21, 2003 | Paul Singer

[cherry_bomb88]

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of families across the country have handed their children over to foster care or juvenile detention centers because they could find no other way to get mental health care for their offspring, according to a study issued Monday.

An advance copy of the study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimated that in 2001 alone, parents voluntarily surrendered custody of 12,700 children in the 19 states and 30 counties the GAO surveyed.

[cherry_bomb88]

As a parent of a mentally ill child, I can tell you this is not a conservative/liberal issue...however we may vary on our ways to deal with it.

I am fortunate that my daughter has good health insurance coverage, however many kids are not so lucky.

I am not sure what the answer is...however I will be working with my local state rep on her round table in an effort to just make sure parents know what their options are.

[cherry_bomb88]

((((((((((((((((((PING))))))))))))))

Calling my FReeper FRiends...I can use your advice and your input! :o)

[MeekOneGOP]

[Radix]

I have certain associates who have offspring and relatives who are afflicted with the Downes Syndrome.

Those children are very special, and they should not be discarded at will.

That is the mentality and the philosophy of the abortion advocates.

I have known persons who would abort a fetus based on the prognosis that a child would be born imperfect.

I know certain persons who have ignored that type of prognostication and who have then become the parents of wonderful and healthy babies.

I would never presume to tell people what is right and what is wrong.

I have my own ideas, but I do not try to ram down the throat of anyone my personal beliefs.

The left has gone insane.

I know what insane looks like.

I actually voted for a Democrat more than once.

I live in the belly of the Beast.

[bayareablues]

I am astonished by this. I cannot believe that someone would give up their child because they don't have insurance! It would seem like there are other options to give up before the child. ie, the second car, big screen TV, etc. Or how about a second job?

Additionally, aren't there are lots of existing federal programs in place to help the disabled with mobility equipment, home health care, etc.? My mother is disabled and its amazing what is available to help with her expenses, but it requires investigation to find that help.

Why would a foster parent be better able to provide for the child's needs? And what about the emotional trauma to the child to wrench them away from the parents? This is unbelievable.

[ChiMark]

My hunch is by putting kids onto the public auction medicaid picks up the tab for meds and special education classes. I know of 3 cases whereby fairly affluent families
gave their children over to the state. I does'nt seem fair to have these adults on housing subsidies and food stamps when their families are capable of caring for these people.
It's becoming too easy for families to dump their kids for the sake of money or convenience.

[snowstorm12]

many people have insurance, but many insurance companies don't cover mental health problems, not even severe problems like schizophrenia. Being put in a mental health care facility is $1,000-2,000 a day. The parents would go broke trying to deal with mental problems.

[cherry_bomb88]

I agree, and the thing is, Radix, there is actually help out there and most people don't know how to find it. For instance, in Illinois, we have "Kid Care", an insurance program for kids that don't have other coverage and there is also CHIP (Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan) available to "uninsurable" families. These are in addition to help from other privately funded organizations. The problem is, people just can't find the information.

What my rep and I are working on is a "one stop" informaton bureau. Rather than throw more money on "mandated" health care, welfare, etc. We are trying to create a place that would pool all the resources available and then get that out in the public so that people have access to the programs that are already available.

I feel blessed and honored that she asked me to serve on her round table. She's an outstanding rep. I had to search everywhere for resources. Luckily my resource needs were not financial, they were "information & support". But there are families that have that need, and those resources are available. We just need to match the needs to the people!

[cherry_bomb88]

Additionally, aren't there are lots of existing federal programs in place to help the disabled with mobility equipment, home health care, etc.?

ABSOLUTELY!!!! Which is what I'm working on with my state rep, a way to get the people in need and the resources together..see above post!

[cherry_bomb88]

Agreed.....many states already have systems that don't require you to give up your kid to get help. And yes, it can be costly, last year my daughter was in a "day" program, instead of going to school, she went to the hospital 5 days a week 9-3 for 3 1/2 weeks...the hospital bill alone (not all the doctors & therapists involved) was over $10,000. I am VERY fortunate that my ex husband has awesome coverage through the federal government/air national guard. Not everyone is that lucky.

[cherry_bomb88]

Let me correct that to, my rep is working on that...I am just on the round table providing my 2 cents. The brilliant idea was my reps.

[ChemistCat]

Okay. Your solution, glib and easy as it sounds, will work for some. However, there are many for whom it is laughable. You are thinking these are kids with a little anxiety or panic disorder. I know parents who are dealing with children who have mental illness so serious they cannot be left unattended. A second job, obviously, is out of the question in this circumstance.

I know a family with a severely autistic child who does not sleep more than 2 hours or so per night. He's 11 and weighs 130 pounds. He will break and attempt to eat glass, which has led to multiple emergency room visits. Everything has to be locked up. He must be having constant hallucinations, but cannot articulate what terrifies him so. He has never smiled or said "Mommy." He is so violent toward non-family members, who terrify him, that nobody else can watch him. His younger sister is blind in one eye because of an attack from him. They had to refit the attic so that the boy could not hurt himself at night. They lock him in there so they can sleep, and he hollers and hits his head on the padded walls all night long. He doesn't play with toys, doesn't use utensils, isn't potty trained (they have to change his diaper, then put special overalls on him so he can't get it back off.) They can't even measure his IQ, which leads to the horrifying idea that maybe under all that dysfunction in the interface, there's a normal intellect, trapped.

He has ten or twelve different diagnoses, and has been on psychoactive medications most of his life, but there's really nothing they can do for him. Giving him up to the state isn't even an option for them because nobody else has been able to manage him at all. They have no life. The father actually has a job and they have health care, but there's no cure at any price for the child's misery, or theirs. It's a life-long obligation. In this case, there's not much your tax dollars could do to help. But I've never begrudged public assistance for people like this one.


My son is autistic but he is high-functioning and a happy, functional person. He's mainstreamed and probably the most mentally HEALTHY person I know. However, my years on an email list for parents of children with disabilities let me know--I really got off light. There are people out there whose lives are living hells, and I cannot imagine how some of them keep from committing terrible acts just to end the suffering they all go through.

Another mother I know has a daughter who has schizophrenia. She has been a ward of the state since her fourth suicide attempt at age 13. She gets to see Ally a couple of times a year. In between episodes, she's a normal teenager, who just wants to go home and be normal, but she can't be. She has to be locked up. Her mother lost her good job over the health care expenses Ally racked up before she ended up giving up custody to the state.

Another mother I know wasn't so lucky. Her son was going through some fairly normal adolescent depression with some acting out. They had a fight over whether he could go somewhere, and he went up to his room mad. He hung himself in his closet. His little brother found him--and saved his life, except he's been in a coma ever since. His mother does all his caretaking. Someday I guess she'll be too old or sick herself to do it, and it'll be the taxpayer's responsibility, I suppose.

What do you do. I'm all for personal responsibility and for taking care of your own children, but sometimes it's way too much to do...and sometimes, a stitch in time saves nine.


Liberals and conservatives are helpless alike before this problem. Sometimes you can't do anything about something awful.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I'm sorry I don't have any answers or can offer any advive.
I can however offer my prayers for those effected by this situation.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Per the article, these are mostly adolescent males. If you read between the lines, these are mostly large violent "children" who need to be in an institutional setting. No family can handle this, and I'm sure many of these kids are from totally dysfunctional homes, with parents who have history of drug, alcohol, and crime problems. If you ask me, the faster we get them off the streets and into an institution, the better. Remember the case in NJ a few years back, of an adolescent boy who murdered a younger boy who came to the house selling for a fundraiser? The older boys parents had begged the court to take custody of him and arrange for institutional care, because they just couldn't handle him. The court told them to just deal with him themselves, so a now a nice normal perfectly innocent child is dead.

[GovernmentShrinker]

For cases as severe as the first one you described, I really think it's important to give up on the child, and focus on saving the rest of the family (not to mention the larger society). Keeping these poor creatures under very heavy sedation at all times would seem to be the reasonable course of action, but this is rarely if ever done, especially outside of an institutional setting.

[footstomper]

people would abort based on prognosis

A grandson of mine will be 3 years old in a couple weeks. He was supposed to be mosaic 17 trisomy- and the degree would determnine how developmentally delayed he would be.Daughter refused to abort. Nothing wrong with that boy. He is all boy and he is healthy as one could ever hope to see.

[goldilucky]

Here's my input.

First, I'd like to know who is "determining" these children to be "mentally ill".

Second, I'd like to know what is compelling the parents of these "mentally ill" children to voluntarily turn their "sick" children over to a complete stranger who may also be mentally sick or even dangerous. Is it the school psychiatrist? Social workers? These people are the ones that are realy sick and dangerous to our children's mental health.

What I've discovered is that many of these children stigmatized as "mentally ill", are being turned over to Satanist and used for sacrificial purposes. Many of these children are also being used as mind control slaves by the state and federal government. Any parent that has any sense would do their homework before surrendering their children to anybody.

[Servant of the Nine]

What I've discovered is that many of these children stigmatized as "mentally ill", are being turned over to Satanist and used for sacrificial purposes. Many of these children are also being used as mind control slaves by the state and federal government.

You don't need a tin foil hat, you need a complete wrap in tin foil and duct tape, followed by heavy sedation. That is an apalling and totally baseless thing to tell parents in desperate situations.

So9

[FITZ]

There are so many able-bodied people on welfare, teenage mothers are having children right and left just to get a check from the government and have no intentions to marry the fathers of the kids ----it's sad to see the true needy be denied while we have an ever-growing welfare class.