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Sunday, July 6, 2003
Collins seeks help for vulnerable children
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Jeremy Dennison set a neighbor's house on fire when he was 10. At age 12, he shot a groundhog with his bow and arrow and smashed the animal's head with a rock as his younger brother watched. He punched his younger siblings, smashed windows and furniture in his family's Owl's Head home. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, bi-polar and attention deficit disorders, Jeremy languished on waiting lists and bounced in and out of Maine hospitals and group homes. Unable to find consistent treatment for Jeremy, his parents were faced with an agonizing solution in January: Give up custody of their 16-year-old son to the state, so Maine could get more federal money to pay for Jeremy's psychiatric needs. "It was horrible," said Jeremy's mother, Emma. "I was hoping there'd be some kind of miracle and we wouldn't have to do this. But we didn't have any choice." U.S. Sen. Susan Collins wants to make sure families like the Dennisons don't have to make such heartbreaking decisions. Collins has set up a two-day hearing before Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on July 15 and 17 to hear testimony from national mental health experts, child advocates, federal agencies and families like the Dennisons, who must legally abandon their children in order to receive mental health treatment. "No family should have to make such an awful decision to relinquish custody of their children," Collins said. "There seems to be a huge gap in how we help families, struggling to care for children with mental health needs. I want to look at the federal role in this and see how we can close that gap. " Collins believes the hearings will provide ideas and solutions as to how Maine and other states can improve their mental health services. Ultimately, Collins said she plans to propose new laws to offer families more flexible federal funding for mental health treatment. Currently, Medicaid in Maine and many other states only pays for room and board at psychiatric hospitals. If a child needs long-term treatment at a group home or a residential psychiatric facility, Medicaid reimburses states for the treatment but not the room and board. Children like Jeremy Dennison end up going into foster care so that Maine and other states can receive federal money to pay for their living expenses at psychiatric programs, which can cost up to $300 a day. Collins, who chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said she decided to hold the hearings after reading the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram series "Castaway Children: Maine's Most Vulnerable Kids." The three-day series was published last August and chronicled Maine's failure to help hundreds of mentally ill children. Nearly 2,000 children languished on waiting lists in 2002 and grew sicker. Hundreds more ended up in emergency rooms or the juvenile lock-up because they were unable receive psychiatric treatment needed to keep them stable. Parents also talked about having to surrender their children to the state so that Maine could access federal money to pay for their costly living expenses at psychiatric facilities. "It was the Press Herald series that sparked my interest in this issue," Collins said. "I was moved by the struggles of the families in the series, who only wanted the best for their children, but were forced into making these awful, agonizing decisions because of a system that utterly fails them." After reading the Press Herald stories, Collins also requested an investigation by the U.S. Inspector General to review why families in Maine and other states were forced to give up custody of their children in exchange for mental health treatment. The Inspector General's report made public in April found that close to 13,000 children in 19 states outside of Maine were placed in foster care so they could access psychiatric services. "The report showed that the problem exists not only in Maine but other states," Collins said. "I thought by holding these hearings we can hear from families and shine a spotlight on the problem. My hope is that I can introduce legislation that will provide some federal funding and assistance to these states." Jan Palmer is heartened by Collins' interest in mentally ill children. Palmer was so desperate to find treatment for her son Kevin that she nearly gave up custody of him last month. Her son is 14 and lives with bipolar and conduct disorders. The illnesses prompt wild and uncontrollable mood swings and rages. Kevin, his mom says, smashes chairs, glass, hits and punches his 4-year-old and 13-year-old brothers. He once dragged his dead cat home after it got hit by a car and kept it in his room for two weeks. "He later threw the cat in his little brother's face," Palmer said. "He swore and screamed at his brothers to the extent the younger one has anxiety disorders himself." In the fall of 2001, Kevin was placed in KidsPeace, a residential program for troubled children in Ellsworth. He received counseling there for a year and a half and returned to his Bucksport home in February. "I knew we couldn't keep him at home," Palmer said. "He was out of control, smashing things, swearing, hitting at his brothers." In June, Palmer says her caseworker from Wings for Children and Families Inc., a Bangor-based counseling agency, came to her home with her supervisor. They explained, Palmer says, that DHS and the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services had said Palmer needed to give up custody of Kevin if she wanted him to receive long-term psychiatric treatment. "They said I'd have to be charged with abandonment or neglect or something and that was the only way I'd get long-term care for Kevin," Palmer said. Palmer told the Wings counselors she'd think it over. Wings executive director Trish Niedorowski said she couldn't comment on Palmer's case but added: "Our case managers don't offer that kind of advice. Usually we repeat the information we've been told by DHS or BDS." Palmer wrestled with the thought of giving up her son. "I didn't think it was right," she said. "I've stood by my son all this time. It's been almost 15 years and I love my son. He has a mental illness but he's still my son. I don't know why they force the issue so hard to terminate your parental rights. It just boggles my mind." In late June, Palmer says she went to a meeting with her counselors, a parent advocate and Dr. Andrew Cook, medical director for the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services children's services. "Cook told me it's not supposed to happen that parents give up their kids to get help, but that there was a program where I could give up my son for a short time," Palmer said. "The parent advocate told him that that wasn't going to happen and that I had an attorney. All of a sudden things took a different turn." The state has since placed Kevin in a temporary crisis bed in Bangor and has promised to place him in a group home in Winterport, Palmer says. Brenda Harvey, acting deputy BDS commissioner, said she was unaware of what happened in the Palmer case but would look into it. Both BDS and DHS officials say that they do not have a policy encouraging families to relinquish custody of their children in order to get psychiatric help. But families and child advocates say the system forces parents to do so because there is no alternative. "If there are instances where families are being told to give up custody, we want to know about it because it shouldn't be happening," Harvey said. Newell Augur, spokesman for the Department of Human Services, says that from 1991 to 1998 many families did abandon their kids to the state in exchange for mental health services. But the practice no longer occurs, he says. "In 1991 we had 250 kids who had been voluntarily abandoned," Augur said. "But we've been slowly winnowing that down." Augur says there are now no children in the foster care system who were placed in state custody solely to get mental health care. "There would have needed to be a finding of abuse or neglect in the child's case," he said. Child advocates such as Jack Comart believe many parents may be charged with neglect because their child is unable to receive psychiatric help. Families with mentally ill children say DHS is often called into their home because their son or daughter has harmed themselves or their siblings. "Who's really keeping track of these cases?" asked Comart, an attorney with Pine Tree Legal, which represents Medicaid clients. "I'm not sure the state really knows how many kids come into its system because they need psychiatric help." Children arrested for crimes also often end up in state custody because they have mental illnesses. There are now 151 children in state custody who were first placed in the state's two juvenile lock-ups. Many of those children have psychiatric troubles and could not receive treatment in the juvenile justice system because Maine didn't have the funding. The only way they could access services, lawyers and corrections officials say, is to become wards of the state. "Once a month, I see a kid in the juvenile justice system who needs psychiatric help and can't get it unless their parents give up custody," said lawyer Chris Northrop, who also acts as a court-appointed guardian for many children. Once a child is turned over to the state, the youth will receive federal money to pay for a residential psychiatric facility instead of languishing without treatment in juvenile detention, Northrop says. "Parents give up their kids because they believe anything is better than having their child locked up," Northrop said. "But it's difficult. The parents feel like they've failed their children. There's nothing you can say that makes them feel any better." Emma Dennison worried that her son Jeremy would end up in jail before he received help. "One of his caseworkers said, "Kick him out on the streets and he'll end up breaking the law and in the criminal justice system. I told her my son is 15. I can't do that to him." After Dennison legally abandoned her son to the state in January, Maine placed Jeremy in a treatment center in Massachusetts. "I still think about it, did I do the right thing?" Dennison said. "I don't want Jeremy to think we don't love him and that we don't want to be his parents." There are also questions that linger in Dennison's mind. "I don't know if my husband and I are on the state's abuse and neglect registry because we gave up our son," she said. "And Jeremy's been complaining for months, saying his teeth and foot hurt. He can't even get medical or dental care now. I thought he'd be better off with the state. But now I'm not so sure." Staff Writer Barbara Walsh can be reached at 791-6382 or
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