A bill that has been among the highest priorities for APA, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and other child mental health advocates was reintroduced in the House and Senate in late January. And this time, its supporters suggest, the bill has a good chance of passage.
The Keeping Families Together Act (HR 687, S 348) is designed to prevent families with mentally ill children from having to relinquish custody to the state to obtain treatment that they cannot afford. The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), Pete Stark (D-Calif.), and Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and in the Senate by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
In addition to APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, supporters include the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, and Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.
In 2003 the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported that welfare directors in 19 states and juvenile-justice directors in 30 counties estimated that at least 12,700 children were placed in the child-welfare and juvenile-justice systems in 2001 solely to provide them with access to mental health treatment their parents could not afford (Psychiatric News, June 6, 2003).
The legislation would keep children with their families through three main components:
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State grants for building new state-level infrastructure to serve these children more efficiently while keeping them with their families.
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Establishment of a federal interagency task force to examine mental health issues in the child-welfare and juvenile-justice systems.
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Inclusion of eligibility of children and adolescents in residential treatment facilities for Medicaid home or community-based services waivers.
APA Trustee-at-Large and child psychiatrist David Fassler, M.D., said passage of the legislation, first introduced in 2003, has become a key legislative priority among advocates for children's mental health.
“The bill has broad bipartisan support, and I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll finally get it passed during the current legislative session,” he told Psychiatric News.
“Tragically, thousands of families have been forced to give up custody of their kids in order to access appropriate mental health care,” he said. “This bill would expand the provision of comprehensive services for eligible children and adolescents without requiring the state to assume custody.”
