I am so frustrated with Yavpai County Courts, the State of Arizona and the idiots who refuse to get my child some help. I write and write letters and memos about the risk everyone is taking by ignoring the situation and it is like talking to a brick wall. Today I sent the following to some advocates in the mental health field, the governors office, her fathers lawyer, her school, and the legal link at NAMI:
(I hope this is the last e-mail I have to send out before someone realizes that my kid needs some help)
I wrote:
Here are some facts for you to ponder upon:
- Eight to twelve percent of American youth are considered to be "seriously disturbed".
A big warning sign that a child may be seriously disturbed is an abrupt change in attitudes about his/her life and or the people in her/his environment. Some children will reflect the disturbances in their environment and it sheds light onto the problem in that environment. Ignoring those signs, or changes does not make the disturbance go away.
- Schizophrenia strikes over 1% of the total population, Bipolar Disorder afflicts 2-3%, and depressive illness disables 5-7%.
In youth, a child may display attitudes or fears that are evidence of a mental illness, in most cases early detection of a mental illness can prevent the condition from escalating into violent behavior, and early detection of any illness is a critical an key factor in treatment options.
- The number one reason for hospital admissions nation wide is a biological brain disorder (mental illness). At any moment, people with a mental illness fill almost 21% of all hospital beds.
If a broad approach using our ability to grade the attitudes of children and adults is practiced, using an open mind we can avoid the high costs of hospitalization, which is required in situations where mental illness goes untreated, or misdiagnosed.
- On any given day, approximately 150,000 people with severe mental illness are homeless, living on the streets or in the public shelters. This accounts for one third of the homeless population.
It is improper to allow a minor child who is displaying early warning signs to go untreated unless we as a society are prepared to add to the substantial problems that follow, including but not limited to the barriers this places on the individual at he or she grows.
- Nearly 90% of all people who commit suicide suffer from a treatable severe mental illness.
- The treatment success rate for schizophrenia is 60%, 65% for major depression, and 80% for bipolar disorder.
- Comparatively, the success rate for treatment of heart disease ranges from 41-52%.
- Only one in five Americans in need of mental health treatment is receiving services. Fewer than half of the individuals with schizophrenia are receiving adequate care.
What makes anyone so sure that Hannah is getting the treatment that a doctor might recommend, when in reality she has been denied access to the medical care that has been suggested?
Hello hannahsmom,
I'm sorry to hear about what's happening. I'm at a loss as to what to say. You've obviously documented the abuse, so it's unconscionable that no action was taken to get your daughter out of the situation.
One thing I can say: you should at least have visitation rights, and be allowed to call your daughter on the phone as often as you'd like. That would be the absolute floor of your rights.
I will pray for you that this situation gets resolved.
Hopefully,
Chris
Thanks for the empathetic words. You are wrong, in truth I am the only parent who has been acting like a parent documenting the abuse, and making constant efforts to get her help. This alone demonstrates that my role in her life would serve her better if I were able to make legal decisions for her. The Judge in the case worked in drug related cases before she became a judge, so to overturn her case or to get her kicked off the bench for what she has been party to in this case might mean opening up a lot of cases that people do not want to see opened up. I am beside myself at the moment with the grief of what to do, because the last thing I would want to see happen is a bunch of drug dealers who deserve to be in jail get out just because this judge is so off base in this case. On the other hand, I have come to this other place where I have started to consider that if she has been even 10% as wrong in other cases as she has been in this one then all of her former cases need to be reviewed and perhaps overturned. I hate the thought of being party to letting bad guys out of jail if they need to be there, but the truth is this judge is breaking the law, and has endangered the welfare of a child. It would be nice if there was a easy solution, and she would just step off the case, but she refuses to leave the case and let anyone else take a second look at the situation. Meanwhile her bias has resulted in a minor child not getting the mental health care she requires. All I can think of is that if my daughter acts out at school, and harms another child I will never forgive myself for not doing everything I can to get her some help. Meanwhile it continues to be so amusing for the stupid police in the area who seem to have no idea what it is they are dealing with. It is a pattern at this point a long and lasting pattern of abuse where a child has been demonstrating fears and anger that is not normal. I keep telling people that it is not normal, and that she needs help, and they keep trying to say it has something to do with me. I use to believe that crap, but now I understand mental illness a little better, and can see that her father is a very sick man and her anger and rage is merely evidence of this fact. I keep waiting for the people who are trained to pick up on patterns to see the patterns in the case, and I do everything I can to point them out, but frankly it is exhausting. I did contact the FBI and let them know that I needed some help, and that I have carried this weight on my own for 7 years and that it can not or should not be my job alone to bring this matter to justice. Keeping a minor child from getting the mental health care that she requires is all of our business, and we as parents and responsible adults do not have the luxury of ignoring it when a kid is acting out. I hear in the news stories where children resolve conflict with classmates using guns, and it only motivates me to keep trying to advocate for my child. You see, my daughter has access to firarms, and her father is a practicing drunk who might not even notice if she happened to get her hands on one. Kids solve their problems in ways that they can, ans sometimes they show us there is a problem is ways that are very cleaver. I believe that my child is showing me that there is a real problem in her house and begging for help, and the reason I know this is true is because the last three weeks she has refused to speak to me on the phone. Now this is a court ordered phone call and she knows that the police will come over if she does not talk to me, so I believe she is tryign to get the police to come over to her home. The problem is, that they keep asking all the wrong questions, and then leaving. My child is not stupid, in fact she is very bright, but she knows that she has to say certian things to the police, and she knows that the police are not going to protect her from her father because they are in business with him. In other words, her father is an informant for them, and sells them firearms. So she can not get any relief from them, and the best she can do is have a paper trail so that is what she is doing. She should not have to survive in a situation like that, she should have been removed from that living hell a long time ago. This might have happened, if and only if we could all focus on her, and forget about saving that judges ***! Frankly, at this point I wish more than anything that the police department would arrest him for neglect, but the problem is they all have liablity at this point.
IT is such a absolute nightmare, and the only way out, is going to be with the help of the US Attourney's Office. I trued to just have the orders in the custody case reversed but the Court of Appeals must agree to some degree that crimes are going on and have sent me to the US Courts. The upside of being there, is that at least I can let someone else be in charge of litigating the case, and I can just focus on all the victim impact statements that need to be composed.
I will tell you this, this situation HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTE NIGHMARE as a parent to watch, and I would not wish it on my worse enemy.
Good luck tammie.
I've been out of town or I would've replied sooner.
Take care,
Chris