Relinquishing A Child's Custody To Get Mental Health Care

After the Omaha, NE mall shooting on December 5, 2007, a lot of information has surfaced about the young man who was the shooter. At age 14, his family was forced to relinquish custody of the boy to the state as the family’s insurance would no longer cover the costs of mental health care. Believe it or not this is fairly common.

An article in today’s Omaha World Herald tells a story about another family that was forced into this situation:
Nebraska parents face mental illness dilemma.

It tells a story about a girl who by the age of 10 had already exhausted the lifetime cap on mental health services of more than $70,000 through her family's insurance. It also tells about Nebraska’s common but criticized practice called "custody relinquishment," in which parents give custody temporarily to the state government in order to get children's mental health services. It is sometimes referred to as a "no fault" case in Nebraska because of a phrase in the state law. This is the same process Robert Hawkins went through in 2002, five years before his murderous rampage at Omaha’s Westroads Mall. He became a state ward at age 14 because his father's insurance would not pay for more psychiatric treatment.

This practice is not confined to Nebraska. Many states not only allow this, but it's commonly used to get mental health care for children who don't otherwise qualify. State child welfare officials in 19 states and county juvenile justice officials in 30 counties who responded to a GAO survey estimated that in fiscal year 2001 parents in their jurisdictions placed over 12,700 children—mostly adolescent males—into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems so that these children could receive mental health services. And this understates the problem. 32 state officials, including officials of 5 states with the largest populations of children, did not provide data. This is per the GAOs study CHILD WELFARE AND JUVENILE JUSTICE - Federal Agencies Could Play a Stronger Role in Helping States Reduce the Number of Children Placed Solely to Obtain Mental Health Services
(2003).

Back to the World Herald Article:

"The process starts with a mental health professional documenting the child's need for treatment. A county attorney files a petition with juvenile court, under a provision that the child needs care for reasons that are no fault of the parent The state becomes the legal guardian. An HHS case worker decides the type and duration of treatment, family visitation schedules and more. An attorney is appointed to represent the child. A judge approves the child's treatment plan."

Can you imagine, folks, the hell these parents have to go through because they have no other way to get mental health care for their children? What about not having a say when your child goes to bed, or where, or even if, your child goes to church? While it's not this way in every state where custody is relinquished, it is this way in many states. What do you say when your child looks at you and asks "why did you abandon me?" There are many parents who have made this heart-wrenching decision out of necessity. The parents of the girl who was the subject of the article above were prevented from seeing their daughter immediately after a suicide attempt because they weren't the legal guardians.