In Ohio, parents of children with severe mental health issues sometimes face an excruciating decision: To get their child costly care, they must sign over custody to the state. Now those parents are fighting for change, and a chunk of Gov. Mike Dewine’s budget.
More >> Custody Or Care: Parents Surrender Kids To State For Mental Health Treatment
Showing posts with label mental health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental health. Show all posts
Monday, May 06, 2019
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Mother urges the family adopting her toddler daughter to 'love her like I do' in an 'incredibly moving' note - and wins praise from a judge for her 'bravery'
A mother whose toddler is going to be put up for adoption has written an 'incredibly moving' note explaining that she will 'always love' her little girl no matter what.
The woman, from the UK, has mental health problems and penned the letter to the court in Leeds saying she hopes her daughter 'gets all the attention in the world' from her new family.
More >> Mother urges the family adopting her toddler daughter to 'love her like I do' in an 'incredibly moving' note - and wins praise from a judge for her 'bravery'
The woman, from the UK, has mental health problems and penned the letter to the court in Leeds saying she hopes her daughter 'gets all the attention in the world' from her new family.
More >> Mother urges the family adopting her toddler daughter to 'love her like I do' in an 'incredibly moving' note - and wins praise from a judge for her 'bravery'
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Ohio’s Children’s Service workers experience PTSD symptoms
Is the foster child better off with or without a visit from her father?
Kristy Carlisle cannot count on her many years of professional experience, or even a gut feeling, to yield a comfortable answer. She doesn’t see any good solutions.
More >> Ohio’s Children’s Service workers experience PTSD symptoms
Kristy Carlisle cannot count on her many years of professional experience, or even a gut feeling, to yield a comfortable answer. She doesn’t see any good solutions.
More >> Ohio’s Children’s Service workers experience PTSD symptoms
Thursday, March 14, 2019
ACLU says schools need more mental health professionals, not police
Public schools need more mental health professionals and fewer police, according to a recently released report by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The report found that nearly one-third of public school students, more than 14 million, are enrolled in schools with police but without a counselor, nurse, psychologist or social worker. The shift in resources comes as schools reassess their security measures in the wake of repeated school shootings and as local, state and federal governments make more money available to fund officers on campuses.
More >> ACLU says schools need more mental health professionals, not police
The report found that nearly one-third of public school students, more than 14 million, are enrolled in schools with police but without a counselor, nurse, psychologist or social worker. The shift in resources comes as schools reassess their security measures in the wake of repeated school shootings and as local, state and federal governments make more money available to fund officers on campuses.
More >> ACLU says schools need more mental health professionals, not police
Thursday, January 03, 2019
To Get Mental Health Help For A Child, Desperate Parents Relinquish Custody
When Toni and Jim Hoy adopted their son Daniel through the foster care system, he was an affectionate toddler. They did not plan to give him back to the state of Illinois, ever.
"Danny was this cute, lovable little blond-haired, blue-eyed baby," Jim says.
More >> To Get Mental Health Help For A Child, Desperate Parents Relinquish Custody
"Danny was this cute, lovable little blond-haired, blue-eyed baby," Jim says.
More >> To Get Mental Health Help For A Child, Desperate Parents Relinquish Custody
Sunday, October 07, 2018
Abuse caught on video at Michigan's biggest autism therapy provider
Macomb County plans to cut ties with Michigan’s largest autism therapy provider, Centria Healthcare, after a slew of problems including an employee caught on video abusing an autistic child.
The decision follows a similar move by Lapeer County last year, which dumped Centria amid mounting frustrations with the company. Centria said it was told Lapeer wanted a cheaper provider but documents obtained by the Free Press show broader problems in both counties.
More >> Abuse caught on video at Michigan's biggest autism therapy provider
The decision follows a similar move by Lapeer County last year, which dumped Centria amid mounting frustrations with the company. Centria said it was told Lapeer wanted a cheaper provider but documents obtained by the Free Press show broader problems in both counties.
More >> Abuse caught on video at Michigan's biggest autism therapy provider
Monday, September 17, 2018
States aren’t giving foster kids the psychiatric drugs they need, government report finds
Vulnerable kids in foster care were taking too many — or too few — psychiatric drugs when the systems in charge of their welfare weren’t paying attention, a new government report released Monday found.
One nurse coordinator listed in the report — conducted by investigators at the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — questioned why a six-year-old boy in foster care was prescribed four psychotropic drugs, especially since a dosage increase in one of the drugs negated the need for another medication he was on. There wasn’t any evidence that a treatment plan was developed before the boy started taking the drugs, government investigators discovered, despite the fact that his state required it.
More >> States aren’t giving foster kids the psychiatric drugs they need, government report finds
One nurse coordinator listed in the report — conducted by investigators at the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — questioned why a six-year-old boy in foster care was prescribed four psychotropic drugs, especially since a dosage increase in one of the drugs negated the need for another medication he was on. There wasn’t any evidence that a treatment plan was developed before the boy started taking the drugs, government investigators discovered, despite the fact that his state required it.
Thursday, July 05, 2018
Maine’s failed to keep at-risk youth safe. No wonder Long Creek is overwhelmed.
The last time Maine’s system for providing children with mental health services got a comprehensive look was in 1997.
That’s when state officials — at the Legislature’s direction, and with the help of service providers, parents and others — assembled a strategic plan for building up the range of services for children with mental health challenges that they could access without having to check into a hospital or be committed to an institution.
More >> Maine’s failed to keep at-risk youth safe. No wonder Long Creek is overwhelmed.
That’s when state officials — at the Legislature’s direction, and with the help of service providers, parents and others — assembled a strategic plan for building up the range of services for children with mental health challenges that they could access without having to check into a hospital or be committed to an institution.
More >> Maine’s failed to keep at-risk youth safe. No wonder Long Creek is overwhelmed.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Locked away: Iowa is holding troubled children in isolation to punish them even as it pays out huge settlements
For nearly 2½ years, JaQuan Bradford — a boy with emotional and mental disabilities — was held in isolation by the Iowa Department of Human Services for most of each day.
More >> Locked away: Iowa is holding troubled children in isolation to punish them even as it pays out huge settlements
Monday, February 19, 2018
Records show neglect of Florida school gunman’s mental health
School and government records on Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old gunman in the Parkland, Florida school massacre, show that he has evinced serious mental and emotional problems since middle school. Cruz used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to kill 17 people—14 students and three teachers—at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Fort Lauderdale last Wednesday.
More >> Records show neglect of Florida school gunman’s mental health
More >> Records show neglect of Florida school gunman’s mental health
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Kids in psych center say staff sexually, physically abused them. Why didn’t officials listen?
In April, a 17-year-old with a history of suicide attempts and depression escaped from a south Charlotte psychiatric hospital. Staff members who caught him used unnecessary force, the teen said, and threatened to beat him up if he told anyone.
At the same facility in September, according to court and police records, a teenage girl said she had sex with a staff member. A grand jury later indicted the Strategic Behavioral Center employee on a charge of statutory rape.
More >> Kids in psych center say staff sexually, physically abused them. Why didn’t officials listen?
At the same facility in September, according to court and police records, a teenage girl said she had sex with a staff member. A grand jury later indicted the Strategic Behavioral Center employee on a charge of statutory rape.
More >> Kids in psych center say staff sexually, physically abused them. Why didn’t officials listen?
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Lawsuit Claims Illinois Children Denied Medically Necessary Services
A lawsuit against Illinois’ Department of Healthcare and Family Services claims the state illegally withholds medically necessary services from children with severe mental health disorders. The case was settled in federal court this week.
More >> Lawsuit Claims Illinois Children Denied Medically Necessary Services
More >> Lawsuit Claims Illinois Children Denied Medically Necessary Services
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
TEENAGER WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES JAILED NEARLY 4 YEARS WITHOUT TRIAL, TREATMENT
The Mississippi criminal justice system has come under fire after BBC News and ProPublica published an account of a 16-year-old boy with serious mental health issues who was denied a trial, treatment, and health issues while behind bars.
More >> TEENAGER WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES JAILED NEARLY 4 YEARS WITHOUT TRIAL, TREATMENT
More >> TEENAGER WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES JAILED NEARLY 4 YEARS WITHOUT TRIAL, TREATMENT
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Lawsuit alleges inadequate treatment for mentally ill children in state care
A disability rights organization has filed a lawsuit alleging Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services is failing to provide adequate child welfare services to children with mental health disabilities.
The litigation, brought by Disability Rights Pennsylvania, concerns the treatment of children who are found to be “dependent” — those who can't safely live at home due to abuse or neglect. Their care falls to the state's Office of Children, Youth and Families and county child welfare programs, which are responsible for making sure the youths have a place to live and planning for “a permanent family connection for the child either through family reunification, foster care or adoption.”
More >> Lawsuit alleges inadequate treatment for mentally ill children in state care
The litigation, brought by Disability Rights Pennsylvania, concerns the treatment of children who are found to be “dependent” — those who can't safely live at home due to abuse or neglect. Their care falls to the state's Office of Children, Youth and Families and county child welfare programs, which are responsible for making sure the youths have a place to live and planning for “a permanent family connection for the child either through family reunification, foster care or adoption.”
More >> Lawsuit alleges inadequate treatment for mentally ill children in state care
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
LK Report for 8/29/17 - Blaming Parents First
Here are today's headlines.
Check back later. You never know when I might update this post.
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A Bronx mom whose young son was malnourished because the rats in their apartment kept eating their food had her kids taken away. The city then gave the foster care family $1000 a month to feed the children.
This story of government obtuseness and cruelty appeared in a recent New York Times op-ed by Emma S. Ketteringham, managing director of the family defense practice at the Bronx Defenders. As she noted, the problem, in this case, was not negligence or abuse, it was poverty.
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I’ve been contemplating writing on this for a while now, but I’ve held back. I work a lot on this in therapy but I’ve never written it down for everyone else to read. I’m trying to be brave and hopeful that there will be no retaliation. It is a real fear.
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WILKES-BARRE — A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit a domestic violence victim filed alleging Luzerne County Children and Youth Services improperly took away her children.
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This isn’t supposed to happen. Child welfare agencies are supposed to take children out of abusive situations, not put them into ones.
Arizona’s Department of Child Safety wrongly took a little girl away from her parents and placed her with a foster parent who ran a pornographic pedophile ring and committed sexual misconduct against a minor. They also placed her with a woman who burnt her over 80 percent of her body with scalding water.
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Half a million children live in foster care in the US. More than 100,000 are waiting to be adopted. The good news is that attitudes toward foster children are changing. Growing numbers of people who want to adopt say they’d consider adopting a foster child, according to a survey conducted for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
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TAMPA — The death of a 17-month-old toddler who was weeks away from a possible adoption led to a rash of arrests and questions about the foster care system.
More >> Eight months after child's death, fate of foster mom still hangs in the balance
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FORT COLLINS, Colo (CBS4) – CBS4 is examining the issues around “Aging Out”, the point when a teenager leaves the foster care system in Colorado.
More >> Foster Parent: ‘The Outcomes I Have Seen Haven’t Been Great’
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The children’s rights watchdog is to investigate reports that a five-year-old Christian girl was left distressed after being placed in foster care in two Muslim households in east London.
More >> Council to be questioned after placing Christian girl with Muslim foster carers
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A damning internal report by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) has found it misused its power when it placed a toddler in temporary foster care, where he drowned in an unauthorized backyard pool in 2014.
More >> Braxton Slager: FACS misused power to place toddler in overcrowded foster care, report finds
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More and more children, under the age of 6, are currently taking psychiatric drugs. And doctors don’t care how harmful the side-effects are to so many of these beautiful young minds. They don’t care that drugging up a young child can cause serious brain-damage and even death. They don’t care that most of these young children will grow up on drugs, which will cause everything from little to no impulse control and violent behavior to brain tumors.
More >> More Than A Million Children Under The Age Of 6 Are On Psychiatric Drugs In America
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Court rules civil commitment statutes don’t apply to foster children, North Star Hospital
A three-year-long legal argument about committing foster children to North Star Behavioral Health Hospital is one step closer to resolution. A judge ruled in late March that the Office of Children’s Services can legally commit foster kids to the psychiatric hospital without getting a judge’s approval.
More >> Court rules civil commitment statutes don’t apply to foster children, North Star Hospital
More >> Court rules civil commitment statutes don’t apply to foster children, North Star Hospital
Sunday, April 02, 2017
Iowa mother battles to get care for adopted son's violent disorder
Tina Polly doesn't know much about what led the blond-haired, blue-eyed 5-year-old to wind up in her foster home.
More >> Iowa mother battles to get care for adopted son's violent disorder
More >> Iowa mother battles to get care for adopted son's violent disorder
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Bill Could Bring Much-Needed Mental-Health Support to Child-Welfare Caseworkers
A bill makings its way through the Colorado Legislature would create a task force to support child-welfare caseworkers in Colorado — especially in the area of mental health.
More >> Bill Could Bring Much-Needed Mental-Health Support to Child-Welfare Caseworkers
More >> Bill Could Bring Much-Needed Mental-Health Support to Child-Welfare Caseworkers
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Proposed Bill Would End ‘Custody For Care’
State officials and parent advocates gave different versions Tuesday of how often, and why, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) takes custody of children with severe behavioral health problems – and whether the practice should continue.
More >> Proposed Bill Would End ‘Custody For Care’
More >> Proposed Bill Would End ‘Custody For Care’
Friday, January 06, 2017
New Study Confirms Foster Care System Harms Children
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published a study comparing “mental and physical health outcomes of children placed in foster care to outcomes of children not placed in foster care.”
More >> New Study Confirms Foster Care System Harms Children
More >> New Study Confirms Foster Care System Harms Children
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