Portsmouth
Unmarried couple's custody case hits snag
No automatic appeal in fight
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
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January 10, 2010 - 12:00 am
Janet Todd and James Miller met online in 1999 and by 2003 had two girls and the start of what would be among the most "tortured" custody fights in the Portsmouth family court.
For five years, they have exchanged allegations of sexual abuse and mental delusions, according to court records. This fall, after finding the two incapable of co-parenting, a marital master awarded Todd, of Hampton, primary custody and Miller "liberal" visitation.
Surprising no one, Miller, who lives in New York and wants the girls, ages 6 and 7, there, appealed to the state Supreme Court.
And there, Miller was surprised.
Because Miller, 51, and Todd, 43, never married, neither has the automatic right to an appeal. Miller is entitled only to a "discretionary appeal," meaning that he and his lawyer, Joshua Gordon of Concord, must persuade the court to hear their case.
The court declined to do that late last month.
Now, Gordon is asking the court to reconsider, partly on the grounds of discrimination.
"Treating the relationship between children and unmarried parents differently than the relationship between children of married parents is unlawful and unconstitutional," Gordon wrote the court.
Gordon cited a 2007 federal report that showed Miller and his girls are not alone: More than 31 percent of New Hampshire children were born to unmarried parents, the report said.
Todd's two lawyers, Elizabeth Olcott of Concord and John Carr of Boston, have until Thursday to object. Carr said they will.
"This has nothing to do with discrimination," Carr said. "It has to do with the attorney for the father looking for a second bite of the apple."
The New Hampshire Supreme Court greatly expanded the opportunity for appellate review in January 2004, when it announced it would take all direct appeals from the state courts.
For the 25 years prior, the justices had been screening each case and deciding whether it merited the high court's review. In 2002, for example, the court received 813 appeals but agreed to hear only 316, or 39 percent, of them, according to the court's media office.
Two years ago, the state Supreme Court amended the appeal process again, this time by reducing the number of domestic cases it would promise to consider. The court cited limited resources and a burgeoning family law caseload - too many cases involved ongoing disputes in divorces that justices had already decided.
Doreen Connor, a lawyer with Wiggin and Nourie in Manchester who's studied this issue, said the justices also disliked second-guessing lower courts on fact-based decisions such as visitation schedules and child support payments.
Under the new rule, the court will guarantee an appeal only on matters decided in the original divorce decree or legal separation. The court no longer will automatically hear repeat issues from a single divorce.
Now, it's the court's discretion whether to hear family issues that come up after the divorce or outside a divorce.
That includes the request of a divorced father who loses his job and can't get his child support adjusted. And the appeal from divorced parents who seek an amendment to their visitation schedule.
And unmarried parents like Miller, dissatisfied with the court's custody decision.
As hoped, the new rule greatly reduced the number of family law appeals taken up by the court.
Connor found that in 2007, the year before the rule took effect, 47 percent of the court's 103 family court appeals would have fallen into the discretionary category. In 2008, the new rule's first year, the court received 112 family law appeals, 54 of which were discretionary.
Of those 54 discretionary appeals, Connor reported, the court declined to take 27.
Connor agrees with Gordon's interpretation of the Miller situation. Had Miller and Todd been married, Miller's appeal of the custody plan would have been guaranteed consideration by the justices.
The court ultimately may not have made Miller any happier with its decision, she said, but he would have been heard.
"I think it's too restrictive," she said of the new rule. "If you are in a multiple-car accident, every time you have a trial you have the right of automatic appeal. Family law involves rights that are dearer and nearer the heart than what you were compensated for the car accident."
Gordon doesn't disagree wholly with the notion of discretionary appeals for some family law matters.
"These cases can go on forever," he said. "Every time one (of the parents) loses, they appeal. And there are parties that file appeals every year. It's understandable that the Supreme Court does not want to take it up again and again."
Gordon would like the court to give exception to parties like Miller, who had not appealed his case previously. That would allow the court discretion while giving unmarried parents the same appeal rights married parents have.
Miller, reached in New York last week, called the court's policy "outrageous."
In family court, he said, "it's all about what's right for the children," he said. "But the Supreme Court has made it all about the marital status. It's just not right."
Should Gordon persuade the court to take up Miller's appeal, he will argue that the girls' mother abused Miller by repeatedly accusing him of sexually assaulting at least one of the girls. The police in three states and state officials have cleared Miller of these allegations, according to court papers.
Gordon believes the allegations at times alienated Millers' children against him and that the lower court unfairly considered the allegations and alienation when deciding custody.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100110/FRONTPAGE/1100390
Isabella Brooke Knightly and Austin Gamez-Knightly
In Memory of my Loving Husband, William F. Knightly Jr. Murdered by ILLEGAL Palliative Care at a Nashua, NH Hospital
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Oklahoma Has Worst Record for Child Abuse within Foster or Group Homes
How Child Protection Services Buys and Sells Our ChildrenA Site To Teach Parents how to Protect themselves and their Children from being abused by Child Protection Services
Home About This SiteTitle IV Funding Senate Set To Renew 1997 Law That Pays CPS to Kidnap Children Summary of Adoption and Safe Families Act Child Protective Services- Historical Review and Current System Written by William Wesley Patton The Corrupt Business of Child Protection Services Child Protection Services in Michagin Written by An Attorney United States Supreme Court Parental Rights CaseLaw Our Nation consistently Maintained that parents posses a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit- not the state Drugging Foster Children Profane Justice by Suzanne Shell Letter to a Judge by Hope Crabtree Important Information by a Lawyer Your Constitutional Rights Under Miranda This is What Happens When States Take Your Children How to Protect Yourself From CPS Author Brenda Alexander who lost her children to CPS Information About the Child Protective Services Program of the Department of Human Services CPS Victories for Parent’s Rights May Help in Dealing with CPS Federal laws Affecting State Proceedings This is the Going Rate for the Buying of Our Children in Georgia How Safe is the System? It Isn’t Fourth Amendment Rights A Report Which was Written by An Intern – Be Sure and Read the Part Highlighted in Bold On Psychiarty and Child Protective Services in the United States By Dr. Fred Baughman The Official How List For Aquiring Federal and State Money When Children Taken By the State Are Adopted Out Author Yvonne Mason Home > Abuse by CPS >
Oklahoma Has Worst Record for Child Abuse within Foster or Group Homes
Oklahoma Has Worst Record for Child Abuse within Foster or Group Homes
January 10, 2010 yvonnemason
The New York Times published an article today, Bleak Stories Follow a Lawsuit on Oklahoma Foster Care, in which it was reported that Oklahoma boasts one of the worst records for children enduring abuse within foster and group homes. The Federal data also shows that Oklahoma children experience frequent moves, extended stays in shelters and lack getting much needed therapy. The state is also needing more social workers, foster homes, and various therapies to offer the children in its care.
A new lawsuit, filed in February by advocacy group, Children’s Rights, as well as local lawyers, details not only the above stated issues within the Oklahoma foster care system, but also the psychological damage that the children suffer after placement in the system. The hope is that this lawsuit will force change, as this course of action has helped other states overhaul broken systems.
Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services is fighting the suit. Their defense? A good record for monthly checks, which are performed by social workers, on the foster families. Allegedly, they are so diligent with the monthly checks, more issues are found. Therefore, their record appears to be worse than other states where they are not as diligent in making their monthly rounds. Foster parents and children in Oklahoma are not buying this story as they report that the workers are not showing up for the checks, but falsifying documents stating that the visits occurred.
For now, the hope is that the lawsuit will proceed and the court will force Oklahoma to step up and take care of the children in foster care.
http://protectingourchildrenfrombeingsold.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/oklahoma-has-worst-record-for-child-abuse-within-foster-or-group-homes/
Home About This SiteTitle IV Funding Senate Set To Renew 1997 Law That Pays CPS to Kidnap Children Summary of Adoption and Safe Families Act Child Protective Services- Historical Review and Current System Written by William Wesley Patton The Corrupt Business of Child Protection Services Child Protection Services in Michagin Written by An Attorney United States Supreme Court Parental Rights CaseLaw Our Nation consistently Maintained that parents posses a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit- not the state Drugging Foster Children Profane Justice by Suzanne Shell Letter to a Judge by Hope Crabtree Important Information by a Lawyer Your Constitutional Rights Under Miranda This is What Happens When States Take Your Children How to Protect Yourself From CPS Author Brenda Alexander who lost her children to CPS Information About the Child Protective Services Program of the Department of Human Services CPS Victories for Parent’s Rights May Help in Dealing with CPS Federal laws Affecting State Proceedings This is the Going Rate for the Buying of Our Children in Georgia How Safe is the System? It Isn’t Fourth Amendment Rights A Report Which was Written by An Intern – Be Sure and Read the Part Highlighted in Bold On Psychiarty and Child Protective Services in the United States By Dr. Fred Baughman The Official How List For Aquiring Federal and State Money When Children Taken By the State Are Adopted Out Author Yvonne Mason Home > Abuse by CPS >
Oklahoma Has Worst Record for Child Abuse within Foster or Group Homes
Oklahoma Has Worst Record for Child Abuse within Foster or Group Homes
January 10, 2010 yvonnemason
The New York Times published an article today, Bleak Stories Follow a Lawsuit on Oklahoma Foster Care, in which it was reported that Oklahoma boasts one of the worst records for children enduring abuse within foster and group homes. The Federal data also shows that Oklahoma children experience frequent moves, extended stays in shelters and lack getting much needed therapy. The state is also needing more social workers, foster homes, and various therapies to offer the children in its care.
A new lawsuit, filed in February by advocacy group, Children’s Rights, as well as local lawyers, details not only the above stated issues within the Oklahoma foster care system, but also the psychological damage that the children suffer after placement in the system. The hope is that this lawsuit will force change, as this course of action has helped other states overhaul broken systems.
Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services is fighting the suit. Their defense? A good record for monthly checks, which are performed by social workers, on the foster families. Allegedly, they are so diligent with the monthly checks, more issues are found. Therefore, their record appears to be worse than other states where they are not as diligent in making their monthly rounds. Foster parents and children in Oklahoma are not buying this story as they report that the workers are not showing up for the checks, but falsifying documents stating that the visits occurred.
For now, the hope is that the lawsuit will proceed and the court will force Oklahoma to step up and take care of the children in foster care.
http://protectingourchildrenfrombeingsold.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/oklahoma-has-worst-record-for-child-abuse-within-foster-or-group-homes/
'Government child abuse' accusations
'Government child abuse' accusations (Daily Telegraph)
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The most widespread child abuse in Britain is perpetrated by the Government
The drive to abolish childhood continues apace. The government is ordering “sex education” to be imposed on primary school children from as young as five. The premature sexualisation of children and the encouragement of prurient interest in sexual matters at a tender age has already provoked increasing numbers of underage pregnancies (which the hypocrites enforcing this degenerate agenda claim it is designed to reduce), but still the fanatics persist in destroying what little remains of childhood innocence in this decadent age.
While anti-paedophile hysteria prevents a mother from pushing her own child on a swing in a playground without undergoing criminal record checks, the most widespread child abuse in this country is being perpetrated by the government. No thought is given to the psychologically disturbing effect on young children of their perception of their parents as a result of unnecessary information about reproduction being imposed on them.
Why are seven-year-olds to be taught about reproduction? To avoid underage pregnancies, is the stock reply from the nomenklatura. Really? How many seven-year-olds fell pregnant last year? The soaring underage pregnancy rates tell their own story about the counterproductive effects of this deluded doctrine. To enforce it further, the government is reducing parental rights to withdraw children from sex education classes. Will Dave Cameron, defender of the family and supposed zealot for devolving power to parents, reverse that? Wait and see – but don’t hold your breath.
A further aggression against conscience is the imposition on faith schools of a duty to teach this rebarbative curriculum. The cosmetic concession is that they may do so within the “tenets of their faith”; but they must impart the factual information on contraception, homosexuality, etc. So, are Catholic schools supposed to say to pupils: “Contraception is a mortal sin. Now, here are the methods and how to employ them…” or “The Church condemns sodomy as one of the Four Sins Crying to Heaven for Vengeance, but in case you are interested, here’s the deal…”?
If that seems insane, it is in fact simply a cynical method of enforcing anti-Christian values on faith schools. It will be interesting, however, to see how the government sets about the enforcement of such teaching in the more robust environment of Muslim schools. Suddenly, it’s fatwah time for New Labour…
This New Labour government has been the most virulently anti-family, anti-Judaeo-Christian ethic administration in British history. It has unravelled the whole fabric of society with its anti-family crusade. In this it betrays its Frankfurt School of Marxism agenda, which it shares with the EU. Compulsory sex education was always a major plank in the Frankfurt School’s programme.
When Georg Lukács became Commissar of Public Education in the short-lived Communist dictatorship of Béla Kun in Hungary in 1919, he enforced on schools a curriculum of pornographic sex education, encouraging promiscuity and trashing Christian values. The aim was to divorce children from their parents and traditional morality, to break down the hated institution of the family as part of his agenda of “cultural terrorism”. The legacy was a generation of sociopaths in Hungary. Four years later he helped found the Frankfurt School, the most influential cultural and sociological trend in the degenerate West today. We are living under its malevolent influence.
Gerald Warner, Daily Telegraph, Nov 2009
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Would be interested in your views on Warner's article - btw, the title of the original article is exactly as I've written it in bold.
http://www.ub40.co.uk/forum/general-anarchy/596119-government-child-abuse-accusations-daily-telegraph.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most widespread child abuse in Britain is perpetrated by the Government
The drive to abolish childhood continues apace. The government is ordering “sex education” to be imposed on primary school children from as young as five. The premature sexualisation of children and the encouragement of prurient interest in sexual matters at a tender age has already provoked increasing numbers of underage pregnancies (which the hypocrites enforcing this degenerate agenda claim it is designed to reduce), but still the fanatics persist in destroying what little remains of childhood innocence in this decadent age.
While anti-paedophile hysteria prevents a mother from pushing her own child on a swing in a playground without undergoing criminal record checks, the most widespread child abuse in this country is being perpetrated by the government. No thought is given to the psychologically disturbing effect on young children of their perception of their parents as a result of unnecessary information about reproduction being imposed on them.
Why are seven-year-olds to be taught about reproduction? To avoid underage pregnancies, is the stock reply from the nomenklatura. Really? How many seven-year-olds fell pregnant last year? The soaring underage pregnancy rates tell their own story about the counterproductive effects of this deluded doctrine. To enforce it further, the government is reducing parental rights to withdraw children from sex education classes. Will Dave Cameron, defender of the family and supposed zealot for devolving power to parents, reverse that? Wait and see – but don’t hold your breath.
A further aggression against conscience is the imposition on faith schools of a duty to teach this rebarbative curriculum. The cosmetic concession is that they may do so within the “tenets of their faith”; but they must impart the factual information on contraception, homosexuality, etc. So, are Catholic schools supposed to say to pupils: “Contraception is a mortal sin. Now, here are the methods and how to employ them…” or “The Church condemns sodomy as one of the Four Sins Crying to Heaven for Vengeance, but in case you are interested, here’s the deal…”?
If that seems insane, it is in fact simply a cynical method of enforcing anti-Christian values on faith schools. It will be interesting, however, to see how the government sets about the enforcement of such teaching in the more robust environment of Muslim schools. Suddenly, it’s fatwah time for New Labour…
This New Labour government has been the most virulently anti-family, anti-Judaeo-Christian ethic administration in British history. It has unravelled the whole fabric of society with its anti-family crusade. In this it betrays its Frankfurt School of Marxism agenda, which it shares with the EU. Compulsory sex education was always a major plank in the Frankfurt School’s programme.
When Georg Lukács became Commissar of Public Education in the short-lived Communist dictatorship of Béla Kun in Hungary in 1919, he enforced on schools a curriculum of pornographic sex education, encouraging promiscuity and trashing Christian values. The aim was to divorce children from their parents and traditional morality, to break down the hated institution of the family as part of his agenda of “cultural terrorism”. The legacy was a generation of sociopaths in Hungary. Four years later he helped found the Frankfurt School, the most influential cultural and sociological trend in the degenerate West today. We are living under its malevolent influence.
Gerald Warner, Daily Telegraph, Nov 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Would be interested in your views on Warner's article - btw, the title of the original article is exactly as I've written it in bold.
http://www.ub40.co.uk/forum/general-anarchy/596119-government-child-abuse-accusations-daily-telegraph.html
Child's suicide raises medication questions
January 10, 2010
Child's suicide raises medication questions
By DEBORAH CIRCELLI
Staff writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Little bodies sink into adult-sized conference chairs.
With crayons between their fingers, they color on a sheet of paper after writing promises to their parents -- "to control my anger," "to make good grades" and "to go to the good side" when deciding what path to take in life.
In a room at Halifax Health Behavioral Services on Jimmy Ann Drive, 10- and 11-year-olds are dealing with adult issues -- depression and mood swings.
For Walter Grimes, 11, his quiet demeanor is a sharp contrast from court documents describing a child in a school summer program who bit a teacher on both of her arms and punched and kicked her in the face. Walter, who was 10 at the time, was taken to Halifax Health Behavioral Services under the state's Baker Act as a threat to himself and others and charged with battery on a school official, records show.
Therapy and psychotropic medication -- medicine used for psychiatric reasons such as mood stabilizers, stimulants and drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- are helping him stay calm and concentrate, his therapist and great aunt said.
The question of how much is too much and how young is too young when it comes to prescribing psychotropic medications -- some that are not approved for children by the Food and Drug Administration -- is a statewide and national debate.
In Florida, 81,961 children covered by Medicaid were on psychotropic medications from January to June 2009, compared to 76,358 from January to June 2008, according to the state Agency for Healthcare Administration. Numbers for private health insurance companies are not public.
Local agencies are seeing a rise in the number of children with psychiatric problems, from severe anxiety to depression. They're also seeing more young children who are 5 or 6 years old. The concern is especially high in foster care, where a higher percentage of children are given psychotropic drugs than in the general population.
The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel Myers -- who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged himself in his foster home -- sparked a statewide review and recommendations in November that will result in new rules and legislation in the coming months for children under foster care.
"We must do better for our children," said Alan Abramowitz, former local DCF administrator and state director of the DCF Family Safety Program Office. "Medication is not the cure-all."
Adderall is the psychotropic medication prescribed statewide in foster care to the largest number of children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, DCF records show. Locally in foster care, the main psychotropic drug being prescribed is Seroquel for mental/mood conditions.
Some child advocates question whether medications -- some of which have serious side effects such as suicidal thoughts -- are being used as a quick fix to behavioral problems that children will grow out of because their brains are still growing.
"It shouldn't take mind-altering medications to help children grow up," said Karen A. Gievers, a child advocate and an attorney in Tallahassee. "It takes good parents to help children grow up."
Others say some children need medications to help them concentrate and succeed in life. Some are being exposed to more violence at home and dealing with issues not seen a decade ago.
"We get children who haven't giggled or laughed or smiled in years," said Shirley Holland, department manager at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, the local community mental health provider for children. "Once we add medication, it's like the light goes on. They experience life in a completely different way. It doesn't mean the burdens go away, but life is not so heavy."
MORE CHILDREN BAKER-ACTED
Halifax Health Behavioral Services has seen the number of children admitted under the Baker Act as a danger to themselves or others almost triple in Volusia and Flagler in a three-year period. The agency treats about 3,000 children in all its programs -- more than half are on psychotropic medications.
The reasons behind the rise are unclear, but some point to children being subjected to more stress at home.
Holland said it would be unusual about 20 years ago to see a 12-year-old who was psychotic, hearing voices and hallucinating, but "they are younger than that now."
She recalled a 5-year-old in 2009 who broke glass and swallowed it after stating he wanted to kill himself.
With a child or adolescent attempting suicide every 90 seconds in this country, Holland asked how can her staff not treat and help children have a better quality of life.
For Walter Grimes, he and his four siblings were adopted by their great aunt in 2008 after being removed from their parents by DCF. Carrie Hill, his great aunt, said the children dealt with issues of abuse and neglect, including sometimes sleeping on the floor when their cots broke. When he first came to live with her three years ago before he was adopted, Hill was often called to the school by police and administrators.
There were times he would "curse at me, hit me and spit on me," she said.
Now, after being on medication for mood swings, Walter is making good grades and has certificates for scoring high on the FCAT in reading, but Hill said he still has more work to do.
"I was worried to put him on medicine, but I asked a lot of questions and talked to doctors and they helped me," Hill said. "He has come a long way. He's a sweet child and he's very lovable and he has a beautiful smile. It's just these issues he's dealing with."
At his Daytona Beach house recently, Walter was quiet and shy as he read his favorite book, "The Lion King," to Hill, whom he calls "Auntie." He said he loves to read because "it's fun."
The fourth-grader said he's learned in therapy how to control his behavior by taking time to think about the situation, breathe or walk away if he is angry. He said the medicine "helps me stay calm. I don't mind (taking it)."
Vanessa Harvey-Lents, program therapist at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, told children in the group recently they always have a choice to do the right thing. She told them that while the medicine they take calms them to think and make the right decision, they have to control their behavior.
"There is no cure to bad behavior," she said.
UNKNOWN DRUG SIDE EFFECTS
Others worry children are being overmedicated and, in some cases, put on medications not approved for children, with unknown long-term side effects.
Dr. Christopher Bellonci, , a psychiatrist in Massachusetts and national expert who has testified before Congress and Florida child-welfare officials, said some psychotropic medications used for aggression in children can have serious side effects, from weight gain to diabetes and heart disease. He thinks there is "over-prescribing."
He points to the diagnosis of bipolar disorder increasing 40-fold in the last decade. Part of the problem, he said, is the "societal viewpoint" that medications are the answer and will be easier than doing therapy and behavioral work.
"I don't know that kids are any more ill than they were a decade ago," Bellonci said. "But if you look at the diagnostic percentages, you are seeing huge increases in the way people are diagnosing these kids."
Maryann Barry, CEO of the Children's Advocacy Center in Daytona Beach, which provides therapy services to abused children, is concerned some children are being treated for mental illness when in truth "the problems are environmental or behavioral." If there is a child in a violent, disruptive home, she said, the child will have violent or withdrawn behavior.
"Their body and mind is responding to that environment," Barry said.
But Dr. Hilda Vega, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, said she looks at a variety of factors before deciding whether to place a child on medication, including the child's pathology and his environment at home and school.
The youngest child she put on medication was 3 1/2 and was aggressive at home and in day care. But the family also saw a behavioral analyst.
In "an ideal world," where there are no problems or illnesses, she said, she would not put any child on medicine. But she said, "we do not live in an ideal world."
The brain is an organ, Vega said, and it also gets sick, which affects behavior and mood. Medicine, Vega said, helps regulate and stabilize. Many times children don't have to stay on the medication into adulthood because, she said, they learn coping and organizational skills.
VIOLENCE AT HOME
"Our" Children First in Daytona Beach, which provides counseling and services to children and families, is seeing an increase in children who are depressed and making suicidal statements or threatening violent acts. In some cases, agency officials said, those children also have ADHD and their academics are impeded. Young children are being put on sleeping medication because of severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress, said Fran Moccia, the agency's CEO.
"Children are seeing their mother shot and killed on the front lawn," Moccia said, referring to a local Daytona Beach case and similar cases in West Volusia and Palm Coast where children were present when their mothers were shot. "There is so much violence every time you turn around.."
Crystal Knight, the agency's clinical director, said while coping skills are taught in therapy, some children are not developmentally able to learn those skills and need medicine in conjunction with therapy.
"Sometimes counseling is just not enough," Knight said.
Dr. Michael Bell, a DeLand pediatrician, said he's shied away from prescribing psychotropic medication since the federal government issued warnings that some medications could cause suicidal thoughts in children. Instead, he refers children to a psychiatrist.
But Bell, who is also medical director of the child protection team at the Children's Advocacy Center, also worries regulations and paperwork requirements are too strict for doctors and there is a risk more children will commit suicide if they are not treated with medication.
Still another concern is the use of off-label medications, which haven't been properly tested for children, said Howard Talenfeld, president of Florida's Children First, a statewide nonprofit children's advocacy group, and chairman of a Florida Bar committee looking at children's legal needs.
Ken Kramer, researcher for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida in Clearwater, which is associated with the Church of Scientology, agrees. He wants to see parents of all children fully informed about alternatives and risk and legislation requiring annual disclosures of gifts/payments by drug companies to physicians.
Walter Grimes' aunt did her homework, and even though psychotropic medication is helping Walter and one of his brothers, she hopes they won't have to take the medicine for very long.
"That is my prayer," she said. "They said they can wean them away from it if they get better. I look forward to the day they can be off the medicine."
State revamping children's medication rules
Christina Pooley was used to the morning, noon and night ritual.
She'd open her mouth and move her tongue around so workers could see that the psychotropic medication she picked up in a little cup with her name on it was gone.
She tried "cheeking" her meds by hiding them in her cheek or partly swallowing them and coughing them up in her room at therapeutic foster homes throughout the state. When staff caught on and she refused to take the medicine, she said they'd give it to her through a shot or crush it up in apple sauce and watch her eat it.
The now 21-year-old Holly Hill woman said throughout almost her entire stay in foster care, from age 13 to 18, she was prescribed several medications at a time for mental health diagnoses, including depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.
Pooley's story of being on psychotropic medications is not uncommon in foster care, state and national child welfare experts say. Nationally about 5 percent of all children are treated with psychotropic medications, but in foster care it ranges from 13 to 53 percent in states nationwide, experts say.
In Florida's foster care system on Jan. 4, for example, about 14.5 percent of children -- or 2,745 children -- received one or more medications. The numbers locally were 13.5 percent or 112 children.
The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel Myers, who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged himself in his foster home, sparked a statewide review and new rules, and legislation is being developed.
Pooley admits she hit walls, threw things, cut herself on her inner arms and legs and ran from group and foster homes, spending days on the Boardwalk. But she also thinks she was overmedicated. She now receives individual therapy at Halifax Health Behavioral Services and said she's only on two medications to help her sleep.
Officials with the state Department of Children & Families would not comment on Pooley's time spent in foster care and her records are not public. But a work group has been studying the broader issue after the South Florida child's death last year .
The group made 90 recommendations in November, including hiring a chief medical officer to monitor prescribing such medications and appointing attorneys for children. Some changes have already been made, such as obtaining proper court and parental consent. DCF is continuing to develop new rules.
DCF Secretary George Sheldon said the state needs to ensure it's dealing with children's behavioral needs appropriately and realize just the act of removing children from their home is traumatic.
"I'm not anti-medication, but I think it is a last resort," Sheldon said.
Locally, child-welfare officials have trained caseworkers on new requirements, including ensuring parents understand the forms they sign, consenting to their children being placed on psychotropic medication.
Robin Rosenberg, who serves on a statewide DCF work group and is deputy director of Florida's Children First, a child advocacy agency, said the issue is whether the "right kids are getting the right medications."
"Before you say we are going to cure that problem with medicine, you need to address what is happening in that child's life," Rosenberg said.
Pooley said she was removed from her home and placed in the state's care because of issues at home. She also said each time she moved from one group home to the next, new doctors would put her on different psychotropic medications, which child-welfare officials and Halifax Health Behavioral Services representatives said is not unusual when children move around and see new doctors.
But Pooley said sometimes the amount of medication she was on made her feel "like I wanted to die." She said when she was 16, she tried overdosing on one of the medications -- Seroquel, which DCF officials say is the most common psychotropic drug used on local foster children.
When she ran from foster care and was on the Boardwalk, she said, she felt better being off medication.
She said that at Halifax Health Behavioral Services -- where she was taken by police under the state's Baker Act as being a danger to herself or others -- doctors took her off all her medications, evaluated her and put her on fewer medications. She believes the people there saved her life and are continuing to help her now with therapy since finding out two years ago she's going blind from a brain malformation that also causes headaches and insomnia.
"It's more depressing than being in foster care, but I don't act out or cut myself and I'm able to deal with it," Pooley said.
She's planning to start back this month at Daytona State College after various surgeries. She wants to get a degree in psychology and work with children at Halifax Health Behavioral Services.
"A lot of (other) people gave up and said I wasn't going to amount to anything," Pooley said. "But people at (Halifax Health Behavioral Services) said, 'We know you have it in you. This is what you have to work on and get it done.' They kind of held me to it."
deborah.circelli@news-jrnl.com
BY THE NUMBERS
Here are the number of children prescribed psychotropic medications to deal with the top four diagnoses at Halifax Health Behavioral Services:*
1,350 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Concerta or Adderall, for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit disorder. Possible side effects are: anxiety, nervousness, chest pain, high blood pressure, headache and mood changes.
471 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Prozac or Lexapro, for major depression/depressive disorder. Possible side effects are: nervousness; loss of appetite; anxiety or trouble sleeping; and feelings of irritability. May increase risk of suicidal thoughts in children, teens and young adults.
241 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Depakote/Depakene, for bipolar disorder. Possible side effects are: dizziness; increased or decreased appetite; trouble sleeping; fast or irregular heartbeat; and hallucinations. Severe and sometimes fatal liver problems have occurred.
159 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Seroquel, for oppositional defiant disorder. Possible side effects are: fast or irregular heartbeat; increased hunger; seizures; and suicidal thoughts or mood changes.
NOTE: *Number of children as of Dec. 11, 2009
SOURCE: Halifax Health Behavioral Services and News-Journal research
BAKER ACT & CHILDREN
The number of children in Volusia and Flagler counties admitted to Halifax Behavioral Services involuntarily under the state's Baker Act as a danger to themselves or others is on the rise:
2005/2006: 289
2006/2007: 662
2007/2008: 784
2008/2009: 845
SOURCE: Halifax Behavioral Services.
Fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30.
PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATION IN FOSTER CARE
The number of children from birth to age 17 in foster care who are on one or more psychotropic medications:
· Florida: 2,745 children or 14.55 percent of all children in foster care.
· Volusia/Flagler/Putnam: 112 children or 13.58 percent of all children in foster care
SOURCE: Florida Department of Children & Families as of Jan. 4, 2010
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Lifestyle/Health/entHEAD03HEAL011010.htm
Child's suicide raises medication questions
By DEBORAH CIRCELLI
Staff writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Little bodies sink into adult-sized conference chairs.
With crayons between their fingers, they color on a sheet of paper after writing promises to their parents -- "to control my anger," "to make good grades" and "to go to the good side" when deciding what path to take in life.
In a room at Halifax Health Behavioral Services on Jimmy Ann Drive, 10- and 11-year-olds are dealing with adult issues -- depression and mood swings.
For Walter Grimes, 11, his quiet demeanor is a sharp contrast from court documents describing a child in a school summer program who bit a teacher on both of her arms and punched and kicked her in the face. Walter, who was 10 at the time, was taken to Halifax Health Behavioral Services under the state's Baker Act as a threat to himself and others and charged with battery on a school official, records show.
Therapy and psychotropic medication -- medicine used for psychiatric reasons such as mood stabilizers, stimulants and drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- are helping him stay calm and concentrate, his therapist and great aunt said.
The question of how much is too much and how young is too young when it comes to prescribing psychotropic medications -- some that are not approved for children by the Food and Drug Administration -- is a statewide and national debate.
In Florida, 81,961 children covered by Medicaid were on psychotropic medications from January to June 2009, compared to 76,358 from January to June 2008, according to the state Agency for Healthcare Administration. Numbers for private health insurance companies are not public.
Local agencies are seeing a rise in the number of children with psychiatric problems, from severe anxiety to depression. They're also seeing more young children who are 5 or 6 years old. The concern is especially high in foster care, where a higher percentage of children are given psychotropic drugs than in the general population.
The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel Myers -- who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged himself in his foster home -- sparked a statewide review and recommendations in November that will result in new rules and legislation in the coming months for children under foster care.
"We must do better for our children," said Alan Abramowitz, former local DCF administrator and state director of the DCF Family Safety Program Office. "Medication is not the cure-all."
Adderall is the psychotropic medication prescribed statewide in foster care to the largest number of children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, DCF records show. Locally in foster care, the main psychotropic drug being prescribed is Seroquel for mental/mood conditions.
Some child advocates question whether medications -- some of which have serious side effects such as suicidal thoughts -- are being used as a quick fix to behavioral problems that children will grow out of because their brains are still growing.
"It shouldn't take mind-altering medications to help children grow up," said Karen A. Gievers, a child advocate and an attorney in Tallahassee. "It takes good parents to help children grow up."
Others say some children need medications to help them concentrate and succeed in life. Some are being exposed to more violence at home and dealing with issues not seen a decade ago.
"We get children who haven't giggled or laughed or smiled in years," said Shirley Holland, department manager at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, the local community mental health provider for children. "Once we add medication, it's like the light goes on. They experience life in a completely different way. It doesn't mean the burdens go away, but life is not so heavy."
MORE CHILDREN BAKER-ACTED
Halifax Health Behavioral Services has seen the number of children admitted under the Baker Act as a danger to themselves or others almost triple in Volusia and Flagler in a three-year period. The agency treats about 3,000 children in all its programs -- more than half are on psychotropic medications.
The reasons behind the rise are unclear, but some point to children being subjected to more stress at home.
Holland said it would be unusual about 20 years ago to see a 12-year-old who was psychotic, hearing voices and hallucinating, but "they are younger than that now."
She recalled a 5-year-old in 2009 who broke glass and swallowed it after stating he wanted to kill himself.
With a child or adolescent attempting suicide every 90 seconds in this country, Holland asked how can her staff not treat and help children have a better quality of life.
For Walter Grimes, he and his four siblings were adopted by their great aunt in 2008 after being removed from their parents by DCF. Carrie Hill, his great aunt, said the children dealt with issues of abuse and neglect, including sometimes sleeping on the floor when their cots broke. When he first came to live with her three years ago before he was adopted, Hill was often called to the school by police and administrators.
There were times he would "curse at me, hit me and spit on me," she said.
Now, after being on medication for mood swings, Walter is making good grades and has certificates for scoring high on the FCAT in reading, but Hill said he still has more work to do.
"I was worried to put him on medicine, but I asked a lot of questions and talked to doctors and they helped me," Hill said. "He has come a long way. He's a sweet child and he's very lovable and he has a beautiful smile. It's just these issues he's dealing with."
At his Daytona Beach house recently, Walter was quiet and shy as he read his favorite book, "The Lion King," to Hill, whom he calls "Auntie." He said he loves to read because "it's fun."
The fourth-grader said he's learned in therapy how to control his behavior by taking time to think about the situation, breathe or walk away if he is angry. He said the medicine "helps me stay calm. I don't mind (taking it)."
Vanessa Harvey-Lents, program therapist at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, told children in the group recently they always have a choice to do the right thing. She told them that while the medicine they take calms them to think and make the right decision, they have to control their behavior.
"There is no cure to bad behavior," she said.
UNKNOWN DRUG SIDE EFFECTS
Others worry children are being overmedicated and, in some cases, put on medications not approved for children, with unknown long-term side effects.
Dr. Christopher Bellonci, , a psychiatrist in Massachusetts and national expert who has testified before Congress and Florida child-welfare officials, said some psychotropic medications used for aggression in children can have serious side effects, from weight gain to diabetes and heart disease. He thinks there is "over-prescribing."
He points to the diagnosis of bipolar disorder increasing 40-fold in the last decade. Part of the problem, he said, is the "societal viewpoint" that medications are the answer and will be easier than doing therapy and behavioral work.
"I don't know that kids are any more ill than they were a decade ago," Bellonci said. "But if you look at the diagnostic percentages, you are seeing huge increases in the way people are diagnosing these kids."
Maryann Barry, CEO of the Children's Advocacy Center in Daytona Beach, which provides therapy services to abused children, is concerned some children are being treated for mental illness when in truth "the problems are environmental or behavioral." If there is a child in a violent, disruptive home, she said, the child will have violent or withdrawn behavior.
"Their body and mind is responding to that environment," Barry said.
But Dr. Hilda Vega, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Halifax Health Behavioral Services, said she looks at a variety of factors before deciding whether to place a child on medication, including the child's pathology and his environment at home and school.
The youngest child she put on medication was 3 1/2 and was aggressive at home and in day care. But the family also saw a behavioral analyst.
In "an ideal world," where there are no problems or illnesses, she said, she would not put any child on medicine. But she said, "we do not live in an ideal world."
The brain is an organ, Vega said, and it also gets sick, which affects behavior and mood. Medicine, Vega said, helps regulate and stabilize. Many times children don't have to stay on the medication into adulthood because, she said, they learn coping and organizational skills.
VIOLENCE AT HOME
"Our" Children First in Daytona Beach, which provides counseling and services to children and families, is seeing an increase in children who are depressed and making suicidal statements or threatening violent acts. In some cases, agency officials said, those children also have ADHD and their academics are impeded. Young children are being put on sleeping medication because of severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress, said Fran Moccia, the agency's CEO.
"Children are seeing their mother shot and killed on the front lawn," Moccia said, referring to a local Daytona Beach case and similar cases in West Volusia and Palm Coast where children were present when their mothers were shot. "There is so much violence every time you turn around.."
Crystal Knight, the agency's clinical director, said while coping skills are taught in therapy, some children are not developmentally able to learn those skills and need medicine in conjunction with therapy.
"Sometimes counseling is just not enough," Knight said.
Dr. Michael Bell, a DeLand pediatrician, said he's shied away from prescribing psychotropic medication since the federal government issued warnings that some medications could cause suicidal thoughts in children. Instead, he refers children to a psychiatrist.
But Bell, who is also medical director of the child protection team at the Children's Advocacy Center, also worries regulations and paperwork requirements are too strict for doctors and there is a risk more children will commit suicide if they are not treated with medication.
Still another concern is the use of off-label medications, which haven't been properly tested for children, said Howard Talenfeld, president of Florida's Children First, a statewide nonprofit children's advocacy group, and chairman of a Florida Bar committee looking at children's legal needs.
Ken Kramer, researcher for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida in Clearwater, which is associated with the Church of Scientology, agrees. He wants to see parents of all children fully informed about alternatives and risk and legislation requiring annual disclosures of gifts/payments by drug companies to physicians.
Walter Grimes' aunt did her homework, and even though psychotropic medication is helping Walter and one of his brothers, she hopes they won't have to take the medicine for very long.
"That is my prayer," she said. "They said they can wean them away from it if they get better. I look forward to the day they can be off the medicine."
State revamping children's medication rules
Christina Pooley was used to the morning, noon and night ritual.
She'd open her mouth and move her tongue around so workers could see that the psychotropic medication she picked up in a little cup with her name on it was gone.
She tried "cheeking" her meds by hiding them in her cheek or partly swallowing them and coughing them up in her room at therapeutic foster homes throughout the state. When staff caught on and she refused to take the medicine, she said they'd give it to her through a shot or crush it up in apple sauce and watch her eat it.
The now 21-year-old Holly Hill woman said throughout almost her entire stay in foster care, from age 13 to 18, she was prescribed several medications at a time for mental health diagnoses, including depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.
Pooley's story of being on psychotropic medications is not uncommon in foster care, state and national child welfare experts say. Nationally about 5 percent of all children are treated with psychotropic medications, but in foster care it ranges from 13 to 53 percent in states nationwide, experts say.
In Florida's foster care system on Jan. 4, for example, about 14.5 percent of children -- or 2,745 children -- received one or more medications. The numbers locally were 13.5 percent or 112 children.
The April 2009 death of a South Florida 7-year-old foster child, Gabriel Myers, who was prescribed several mind-altering drugs and hanged himself in his foster home, sparked a statewide review and new rules, and legislation is being developed.
Pooley admits she hit walls, threw things, cut herself on her inner arms and legs and ran from group and foster homes, spending days on the Boardwalk. But she also thinks she was overmedicated. She now receives individual therapy at Halifax Health Behavioral Services and said she's only on two medications to help her sleep.
Officials with the state Department of Children & Families would not comment on Pooley's time spent in foster care and her records are not public. But a work group has been studying the broader issue after the South Florida child's death last year .
The group made 90 recommendations in November, including hiring a chief medical officer to monitor prescribing such medications and appointing attorneys for children. Some changes have already been made, such as obtaining proper court and parental consent. DCF is continuing to develop new rules.
DCF Secretary George Sheldon said the state needs to ensure it's dealing with children's behavioral needs appropriately and realize just the act of removing children from their home is traumatic.
"I'm not anti-medication, but I think it is a last resort," Sheldon said.
Locally, child-welfare officials have trained caseworkers on new requirements, including ensuring parents understand the forms they sign, consenting to their children being placed on psychotropic medication.
Robin Rosenberg, who serves on a statewide DCF work group and is deputy director of Florida's Children First, a child advocacy agency, said the issue is whether the "right kids are getting the right medications."
"Before you say we are going to cure that problem with medicine, you need to address what is happening in that child's life," Rosenberg said.
Pooley said she was removed from her home and placed in the state's care because of issues at home. She also said each time she moved from one group home to the next, new doctors would put her on different psychotropic medications, which child-welfare officials and Halifax Health Behavioral Services representatives said is not unusual when children move around and see new doctors.
But Pooley said sometimes the amount of medication she was on made her feel "like I wanted to die." She said when she was 16, she tried overdosing on one of the medications -- Seroquel, which DCF officials say is the most common psychotropic drug used on local foster children.
When she ran from foster care and was on the Boardwalk, she said, she felt better being off medication.
She said that at Halifax Health Behavioral Services -- where she was taken by police under the state's Baker Act as being a danger to herself or others -- doctors took her off all her medications, evaluated her and put her on fewer medications. She believes the people there saved her life and are continuing to help her now with therapy since finding out two years ago she's going blind from a brain malformation that also causes headaches and insomnia.
"It's more depressing than being in foster care, but I don't act out or cut myself and I'm able to deal with it," Pooley said.
She's planning to start back this month at Daytona State College after various surgeries. She wants to get a degree in psychology and work with children at Halifax Health Behavioral Services.
"A lot of (other) people gave up and said I wasn't going to amount to anything," Pooley said. "But people at (Halifax Health Behavioral Services) said, 'We know you have it in you. This is what you have to work on and get it done.' They kind of held me to it."
deborah.circelli@news-jrnl.com
BY THE NUMBERS
Here are the number of children prescribed psychotropic medications to deal with the top four diagnoses at Halifax Health Behavioral Services:*
1,350 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Concerta or Adderall, for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit disorder. Possible side effects are: anxiety, nervousness, chest pain, high blood pressure, headache and mood changes.
471 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Prozac or Lexapro, for major depression/depressive disorder. Possible side effects are: nervousness; loss of appetite; anxiety or trouble sleeping; and feelings of irritability. May increase risk of suicidal thoughts in children, teens and young adults.
241 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Depakote/Depakene, for bipolar disorder. Possible side effects are: dizziness; increased or decreased appetite; trouble sleeping; fast or irregular heartbeat; and hallucinations. Severe and sometimes fatal liver problems have occurred.
159 Children who are prescribed drugs, such as Seroquel, for oppositional defiant disorder. Possible side effects are: fast or irregular heartbeat; increased hunger; seizures; and suicidal thoughts or mood changes.
NOTE: *Number of children as of Dec. 11, 2009
SOURCE: Halifax Health Behavioral Services and News-Journal research
BAKER ACT & CHILDREN
The number of children in Volusia and Flagler counties admitted to Halifax Behavioral Services involuntarily under the state's Baker Act as a danger to themselves or others is on the rise:
2005/2006: 289
2006/2007: 662
2007/2008: 784
2008/2009: 845
SOURCE: Halifax Behavioral Services.
Fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30.
PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATION IN FOSTER CARE
The number of children from birth to age 17 in foster care who are on one or more psychotropic medications:
· Florida: 2,745 children or 14.55 percent of all children in foster care.
· Volusia/Flagler/Putnam: 112 children or 13.58 percent of all children in foster care
SOURCE: Florida Department of Children & Families as of Jan. 4, 2010
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Lifestyle/Health/entHEAD03HEAL011010.htm
Save state’s most vulnerable through reform of DSHS
Published: Sunday, January 10, 2010
GUEST COMMENTARY / OVERGROWN BUREAUCRACY
Save state’s most vulnerable through reform of DSHS
By Rep. Mike Armstrong
In 1970, under the direction of Gov. Dan Evans and approval of the Legislature, all of the state’s major social services agencies were consolidated under one giant agency — the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). It seemed a good idea at the time as Gov. Evans sought to “unify the related social and health services of state government” under one umbrella.
Over the following 20 years, however, the Legislature found various services could be more efficient, effective and customer oriented if they were separated from the bureaucracy of DSHS. So lawmakers removed several agencies from DSHS, including veteran’s affairs, prisons, services for the blind, the school for the deaf, and the Department of Health, and established them as separate agencies.
Even with those departments removed, DSHS has expanded to become the state’s largest agency, administering divisions dealing with everything from the treatment of drugs and alcohol, welfare assistance and homelessness, to child protective services and programs for the aging and disabled. With more than 19,000 employees and a staggeringly high budget of more than $20 billion, DSHS has grown so large and unwieldy that it has lost its way; so large that it can no longer be effectively managed; such a behemoth that the one-stop shopping idea envisioned 40 years ago has become enveloped so deep in bureaucracy that it can no longer deliver the quality of services our state’s most vulnerable need and deserve.
But so much worse are the cases involving rampant abuse and neglect of those most helpless who were supposed to be under the protection of DSHS. An extensive Seattle television news investigation found that 121 children have died since 2002 — almost one child per month who was beaten, tortured, starved, molested, raped and even murdered. The common tie is that every one of these innocent victims was dependent upon DSHS for their welfare, protection and safety. But bureaucracy got in the way, the state’s largest agency failed them, and kids died. It’s completely inexcusable.
Many good DSHS workers are frustrated with what they recognize as a broken system and have asked me for help. They tell me they work for an agency within an agency within another agency. Each agency has inconsistent rules managed under different entrenched fiefdoms. Each one of these agencies is beset with another layer of management. The right hand rarely knows what the left hand is doing because of the enormous level of bureaucracy. And that’s why there are repeated breakdowns in the system, costing the lives of our most vulnerable and saddling the state with millions of dollars in lawsuits and settlements.
Well-intentioned but superficial efforts by past and present governors to increase accountability through executive orders, or by changing DSHS secretaries, historically have made little difference. On average, a new secretary is appointed to DSHS about every 22 months. Mismanagement deep within continues to outlast the tenure of DSHS secretaries, demonstrating that the problem cannot be solved by one individual appointed by the governor or a few administrative changes. It’s much larger than that.
This antiquated umbrella agency must be reformed completely and systemically from top to bottom if we are to protect the lives of children and our most vulnerable citizens. I believe the most effective way to accomplish this goal is to entirely eliminate DSHS, abolish its bureaucratic fiefdoms, and divide its responsibilities into smaller, more manageable, functional and effective agencies.
During the 2010 session, I will be pushing hard to advance these changes through House Bill 2197. This is a measure I introduced last year which would eliminate DSHS by July 1, 2011 and transfer its responsibilities to four new smaller agencies, including the Department of Economic Services, Department of Medical Assistance, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and the Department of Children’s Services. By creating smaller agencies and stripping away the walls of bureaucracy, we can finally get our arms around this beast and work to effectively and efficiently deliver responsive services to the citizens of our state.
Thirty lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, have co-sponsored the bill as a bipartisan effort, and other lawmakers have promised their support because they recognize we can no longer stand idle while children suffer and die.
Good people within DSHS are caught up in a bad system, so I’m not interested in laying blame or pointing fingers. I’m interested in changing the system.
Let us resolve to use this year as the beginning of comprehensive agency reform that is most effective at helping those at risk, providing for our most vulnerable, and saving the lives of innocent children who rely on the state for their protection.
State Rep. Mike Armstrong (R-Wenatchee) serves as ranking Republican on the State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee. He can be contacted at 360-786-7832 or from his Web site, www.houserepublicans.wa.gov/Armstrong.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100110/OPINION03/701109951
GUEST COMMENTARY / OVERGROWN BUREAUCRACY
Save state’s most vulnerable through reform of DSHS
By Rep. Mike Armstrong
In 1970, under the direction of Gov. Dan Evans and approval of the Legislature, all of the state’s major social services agencies were consolidated under one giant agency — the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). It seemed a good idea at the time as Gov. Evans sought to “unify the related social and health services of state government” under one umbrella.
Over the following 20 years, however, the Legislature found various services could be more efficient, effective and customer oriented if they were separated from the bureaucracy of DSHS. So lawmakers removed several agencies from DSHS, including veteran’s affairs, prisons, services for the blind, the school for the deaf, and the Department of Health, and established them as separate agencies.
Even with those departments removed, DSHS has expanded to become the state’s largest agency, administering divisions dealing with everything from the treatment of drugs and alcohol, welfare assistance and homelessness, to child protective services and programs for the aging and disabled. With more than 19,000 employees and a staggeringly high budget of more than $20 billion, DSHS has grown so large and unwieldy that it has lost its way; so large that it can no longer be effectively managed; such a behemoth that the one-stop shopping idea envisioned 40 years ago has become enveloped so deep in bureaucracy that it can no longer deliver the quality of services our state’s most vulnerable need and deserve.
But so much worse are the cases involving rampant abuse and neglect of those most helpless who were supposed to be under the protection of DSHS. An extensive Seattle television news investigation found that 121 children have died since 2002 — almost one child per month who was beaten, tortured, starved, molested, raped and even murdered. The common tie is that every one of these innocent victims was dependent upon DSHS for their welfare, protection and safety. But bureaucracy got in the way, the state’s largest agency failed them, and kids died. It’s completely inexcusable.
Many good DSHS workers are frustrated with what they recognize as a broken system and have asked me for help. They tell me they work for an agency within an agency within another agency. Each agency has inconsistent rules managed under different entrenched fiefdoms. Each one of these agencies is beset with another layer of management. The right hand rarely knows what the left hand is doing because of the enormous level of bureaucracy. And that’s why there are repeated breakdowns in the system, costing the lives of our most vulnerable and saddling the state with millions of dollars in lawsuits and settlements.
Well-intentioned but superficial efforts by past and present governors to increase accountability through executive orders, or by changing DSHS secretaries, historically have made little difference. On average, a new secretary is appointed to DSHS about every 22 months. Mismanagement deep within continues to outlast the tenure of DSHS secretaries, demonstrating that the problem cannot be solved by one individual appointed by the governor or a few administrative changes. It’s much larger than that.
This antiquated umbrella agency must be reformed completely and systemically from top to bottom if we are to protect the lives of children and our most vulnerable citizens. I believe the most effective way to accomplish this goal is to entirely eliminate DSHS, abolish its bureaucratic fiefdoms, and divide its responsibilities into smaller, more manageable, functional and effective agencies.
During the 2010 session, I will be pushing hard to advance these changes through House Bill 2197. This is a measure I introduced last year which would eliminate DSHS by July 1, 2011 and transfer its responsibilities to four new smaller agencies, including the Department of Economic Services, Department of Medical Assistance, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and the Department of Children’s Services. By creating smaller agencies and stripping away the walls of bureaucracy, we can finally get our arms around this beast and work to effectively and efficiently deliver responsive services to the citizens of our state.
Thirty lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, have co-sponsored the bill as a bipartisan effort, and other lawmakers have promised their support because they recognize we can no longer stand idle while children suffer and die.
Good people within DSHS are caught up in a bad system, so I’m not interested in laying blame or pointing fingers. I’m interested in changing the system.
Let us resolve to use this year as the beginning of comprehensive agency reform that is most effective at helping those at risk, providing for our most vulnerable, and saving the lives of innocent children who rely on the state for their protection.
State Rep. Mike Armstrong (R-Wenatchee) serves as ranking Republican on the State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee. He can be contacted at 360-786-7832 or from his Web site, www.houserepublicans.wa.gov/Armstrong.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100110/OPINION03/701109951
Foster Parent Speaks Out About Abuses of CPS/DCYF in the Removal of Children
A foster-adoptive parent speaks out on challenges
January 10, 2010
The allegations have not discouraged me from continuing my mission as a foster parent. Actually, the circumstances educated and enlightened me. I will speak out for every family torn apart by the child welfare system, reaching out to educate them on how to protect their family. Will these people who responded go public with me? No. They do not want to become DSS’ next victims.
But the concerns are the same, and they are things I have seen myself. Lying. Divide-and-conquer practices. Disrespect. Child removal on a whim. In the center of any of these situations is a power struggle.
Parents, whether biological or foster, think they have a certain amount of control surrounding the children. However, some social workers are determined to show them they are wrong.
What I have experienced is a system that has turned into power, control and hate. Where has the love for the children gone?
No one moves more than a foster child, and these moves are made alone. Imagine moving from place to place wondering what you did wrong, and waiting for someone to tell you why your parents are not coming to get you. This current system is lacking in the distinction between child abuse/neglect and parenting some social workers don’t agree with.
Betsy Ross, Elkton, Md.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100110/OPINION10/100109017/1004/OPINION/A-foster-adoptive-parent-speaks-out-on-challenges
January 10, 2010
The allegations have not discouraged me from continuing my mission as a foster parent. Actually, the circumstances educated and enlightened me. I will speak out for every family torn apart by the child welfare system, reaching out to educate them on how to protect their family. Will these people who responded go public with me? No. They do not want to become DSS’ next victims.
But the concerns are the same, and they are things I have seen myself. Lying. Divide-and-conquer practices. Disrespect. Child removal on a whim. In the center of any of these situations is a power struggle.
Parents, whether biological or foster, think they have a certain amount of control surrounding the children. However, some social workers are determined to show them they are wrong.
What I have experienced is a system that has turned into power, control and hate. Where has the love for the children gone?
No one moves more than a foster child, and these moves are made alone. Imagine moving from place to place wondering what you did wrong, and waiting for someone to tell you why your parents are not coming to get you. This current system is lacking in the distinction between child abuse/neglect and parenting some social workers don’t agree with.
Betsy Ross, Elkton, Md.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100110/OPINION10/100109017/1004/OPINION/A-foster-adoptive-parent-speaks-out-on-challenges
More Grandparents Screwed Over By CPS/DCYF and The Court's
Grandparents saddened by custody battle
By HAYLEY COX
Herald Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, January 9, 2010 9:12 PM CST
Ninfa and Ubaldo Ochoa are devastated by the thought they may never see their grandson again.
Their grandson, Sean, who recently turned 3, lives with foster parents who want to adopt him. But the Ochoas believe he would be better off with family.
"It’s been so hard without him," Ninfa said. "Maybe there’ll be a miracle and we can get Sean home."
Child Protective Services removed Sean from his mother’s care after domestic violence within the family. Sean lived in a foster home for several months. After a home study returned with positive results, Sean came to live with his grandparents in Lockney in September 2007.
"When we remove a child, the first thing we look for is family members (for the child’s placement)," said CPS spokesperson Greg Cunningham. "If we can find an appropriate place (with family), that’s more likely to be a successful placement."
The parents voluntarily relinquished their rights to Sean in January 2008. Ninfa met with an attorney, Barbara Adams, who reportedly told her it would be fine for the mother to visit with Sean as long as Ninfa was there to supervise. In reality, though, the court had ordered that the parents were not to have any contact with Sean unless CPS was notified and present.
In February 2008, Ninfa and her grandson went to Wal-Mart in Canyon to shop for a wedding present. While there, she bumped into her daughter, Sean’s mother, who stopped to talk. A CPS caseworker must have seen them together, Ninfa said.
Later that day, Ninfa received a call from CPS asking her to come to the CPS office. When she did, they removed Sean from her care, placed him in foster care and approved him for adoption.
"He was looking very scared (when CPS took him)," Ninfa said. "This doesn’t seem to be in his best interest."
The Ochoas filed a petition within Floyd County requesting guardianship of Sean in March 2008. In August of that year, an associate judge denied the Ochoas’ request. The Ochoas appealed the decision, expecting to get a hearing within 30 days. But because of scheduling conflicts, the trial was delayed until December 2008.
"The law says on any type of termination case the court should hear those cases as soon as possible," said Lubbock attorney Jaime Lopez, who represents the Ochoas. "You don’t want the child stuck in foster care or leave them in limbo."
By the time the appeal was heard in court, Sean had been with the foster parents for almost a year. The foster parents sought adoption of Sean, arguing that it would be detrimental to remove him from their care after so long. A CPS caseworker also testified that Sean had bonded with his foster parents
"That delay (in hearings) is what gave them the benefit," Lopez said.
According to Lopez, the judge also didn’t want to put the Ochoas in the position of choosing between Sean and their daughter, since he can have no contact with his birth mother. The appellate judge issued a ruling in January 2009, agreeing that Sean should remain with the foster parents.
(Dot-We were told by the Director of DCYF in NH that we chose our dying daughter over our grandson. After receiving much warranted medical care she survived. We were then asked by the crude Director why she isn't dead."
"What did I do so wrong?" Ninfa said. "I don’t see how they can claim we’re dangerous. They (CPS and the courts) all make up their mind what they already have planned. They probably had the adoptive parents lined up."
Cunningham, the CPS spokesperson, said the agency does not make adoption decisions.
"It’s important to note that CPS does not make final decisions," Cunningham said. "We make investigations and recommendations, but in the end it’s the court’s responsibility to make that decision."
The Ochoas filed another appeal with the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo, which issued its consenting opinion in October:
"Given the instances of Appellants’ failure to follow the safety plans adopted for the child, their inability to recognize the danger presented to the child by parental contact, as well as the prospective plans for the child, we cannot say that the trial court’s decision to not appoint Appellants as managing conservators or to order possession or access was arbitrary, unreasonable, or without reference to any guiding rules or principles."
The next step for the Ochoas would be to take the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Their attorney discouraged that, however, saying the supreme court would most likely not reverse the decision.
As a result, Ninfa and Ubaldo may never see their grandchild again.
"If (the foster parents) do adopt him, they’re calling him Jack and taking him to Florida," Ninfa said. "He has a brother that he’ll never meet."
(Contact Hayley Cox at hcox@plainviewdailyherald.com or 806-296-1352.)
http://www.myplainview.com/articles/2010/01/09/breaking_news/doc4b49429bac9c5683062075.txt
By HAYLEY COX
Herald Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, January 9, 2010 9:12 PM CST
Ninfa and Ubaldo Ochoa are devastated by the thought they may never see their grandson again.
Their grandson, Sean, who recently turned 3, lives with foster parents who want to adopt him. But the Ochoas believe he would be better off with family.
"It’s been so hard without him," Ninfa said. "Maybe there’ll be a miracle and we can get Sean home."
Child Protective Services removed Sean from his mother’s care after domestic violence within the family. Sean lived in a foster home for several months. After a home study returned with positive results, Sean came to live with his grandparents in Lockney in September 2007.
"When we remove a child, the first thing we look for is family members (for the child’s placement)," said CPS spokesperson Greg Cunningham. "If we can find an appropriate place (with family), that’s more likely to be a successful placement."
The parents voluntarily relinquished their rights to Sean in January 2008. Ninfa met with an attorney, Barbara Adams, who reportedly told her it would be fine for the mother to visit with Sean as long as Ninfa was there to supervise. In reality, though, the court had ordered that the parents were not to have any contact with Sean unless CPS was notified and present.
In February 2008, Ninfa and her grandson went to Wal-Mart in Canyon to shop for a wedding present. While there, she bumped into her daughter, Sean’s mother, who stopped to talk. A CPS caseworker must have seen them together, Ninfa said.
Later that day, Ninfa received a call from CPS asking her to come to the CPS office. When she did, they removed Sean from her care, placed him in foster care and approved him for adoption.
"He was looking very scared (when CPS took him)," Ninfa said. "This doesn’t seem to be in his best interest."
The Ochoas filed a petition within Floyd County requesting guardianship of Sean in March 2008. In August of that year, an associate judge denied the Ochoas’ request. The Ochoas appealed the decision, expecting to get a hearing within 30 days. But because of scheduling conflicts, the trial was delayed until December 2008.
"The law says on any type of termination case the court should hear those cases as soon as possible," said Lubbock attorney Jaime Lopez, who represents the Ochoas. "You don’t want the child stuck in foster care or leave them in limbo."
By the time the appeal was heard in court, Sean had been with the foster parents for almost a year. The foster parents sought adoption of Sean, arguing that it would be detrimental to remove him from their care after so long. A CPS caseworker also testified that Sean had bonded with his foster parents
"That delay (in hearings) is what gave them the benefit," Lopez said.
According to Lopez, the judge also didn’t want to put the Ochoas in the position of choosing between Sean and their daughter, since he can have no contact with his birth mother. The appellate judge issued a ruling in January 2009, agreeing that Sean should remain with the foster parents.
(Dot-We were told by the Director of DCYF in NH that we chose our dying daughter over our grandson. After receiving much warranted medical care she survived. We were then asked by the crude Director why she isn't dead."
"What did I do so wrong?" Ninfa said. "I don’t see how they can claim we’re dangerous. They (CPS and the courts) all make up their mind what they already have planned. They probably had the adoptive parents lined up."
Cunningham, the CPS spokesperson, said the agency does not make adoption decisions.
"It’s important to note that CPS does not make final decisions," Cunningham said. "We make investigations and recommendations, but in the end it’s the court’s responsibility to make that decision."
The Ochoas filed another appeal with the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo, which issued its consenting opinion in October:
"Given the instances of Appellants’ failure to follow the safety plans adopted for the child, their inability to recognize the danger presented to the child by parental contact, as well as the prospective plans for the child, we cannot say that the trial court’s decision to not appoint Appellants as managing conservators or to order possession or access was arbitrary, unreasonable, or without reference to any guiding rules or principles."
The next step for the Ochoas would be to take the case to the Texas Supreme Court. Their attorney discouraged that, however, saying the supreme court would most likely not reverse the decision.
As a result, Ninfa and Ubaldo may never see their grandchild again.
"If (the foster parents) do adopt him, they’re calling him Jack and taking him to Florida," Ninfa said. "He has a brother that he’ll never meet."
(Contact Hayley Cox at hcox@plainviewdailyherald.com or 806-296-1352.)
http://www.myplainview.com/articles/2010/01/09/breaking_news/doc4b49429bac9c5683062075.txt
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