Parents Not Required to Relinquish Legal Custody of Their Children to Obtain State-Funded Mental Health Services for These Children

Frequently having exhausted their own ability to access mental health services needed by their children, parents across the country have given up legal custody of their children and placed them in foster care to obtain access to these services. A national survey conducted in 2001 that received responses from nineteen states found that 12,700 children were placed in child welfare or juvenile justice systems to get mental-health care. United States General Accounting Office, Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: Several Factors Influence the Placement of Children Solely to Obtain Mental Health Services (2003), http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03685t.pdf.

Nearly 2,400 children were voluntarily placed in foster care in Virginia from 2003 through 2005. The Virginia State Executive Council in 2004 reported that between 23% and 27% of the children in foster care in Virginia were admitted voluntarily by parents …

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Publication information: Article title: Parents Not Required to Relinquish Legal Custody of Their Children to Obtain State-Funded Mental Health Services for These Children. Contributors: Not available. Magazine title: Developments in Mental Health Law. Volume: 26. Issue: 2 Publication date: July 2007. Page number: 129+. © 2009 Institute of Law, Psychiatry & Public Policy. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

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