Serving children with complex backgrounds and needs in the community is complicated. It becomes even more complex with the systemic failures that seem to become more and more prevalent every day. As mental health, child welfare and developmental disabilities sit in meetings fighting it out over who is responsible for providing care, law enforcement officers are out in the field de-escalating the child and supporting frustrated, exhausted family members. When other systems don’t have solutions, particularly for young children who are a danger to themselves and others, law enforcement is being forced to respond time and time again in what often feels like situations with no clear plan or resolution. They sit on-scene with children while the other professionals point fingers at each other and refuse to offer financial support because it’s not really their area. Professionally I’ve experienced two recent examples which highlight this serious issue.
Mental Health or Child Welfare or Juvenile Justice?
In his 10 years of life, this child has spent over half of it in treatment. A horrific trauma history placed this child in the custody of child welfare around 4 years old. In the next 6 years, he spent time in psychiatric residential facilities, therapeutic foster care families, group homes and crisis centers. He received a vast amount of therapeutic support. He developed attachments to caregivers almost to his detriment as he didn’t want to move on from the places he felt safe. Even with the most seasoned foster families, he would exhibit behaviors that were unsafe and unacceptable. Often he responded to these situations with surprise at the very normal negative reaction of the people around him. He just couldn’t be socially acceptable and therefore his team was in a difficult position trying to determine what his needs were and a safe place where he could be so he could continue to work on his issues. Unfortunately, in his resident state there were only two psychiatric treatment facilities that treated his age group with his extreme issues. He had already spent several years at one. He couldn’t go to a community family because of his level of violence. He was placed in a stabilization respite bed while his team got together to figure out a solution. It was a very interesting meeting with mental health saying they really couldn’t do much for him or offer appropriate facilities and child welfare pushing his young age and his need to be somewhere therapeutic. During the discussion, it was highlighted that his violent actions fell clearly in the realm of criminal justice and perhaps a detention facility was more appropriate. No one wanted to see that for a 10 year old while at the same time no one could deny that there was a choice aspect to his current behaviors. Final outcome: he ended up in the local ER while waiting for an out-of-state residential placement local mental health didn’t have to pay for.
Mental Health or Developmental Disabilities?
Even more complicated are the very young children with developmental deficiencies that prevent them from being appropriate for mental health facilities. Most crisis respite placements are built around a certain expectation that children can cognitively understand the program expectations and follow the rules. For those children that can’t, they need a facility that gives them the one-on-one support that they need. Unfortunately, many places just don’t have this type of resource available. Recently, the police and their crisis intervention team have been out a number of times on a local 7 year old youth with a dual mental health/developmental disability diagnosis. He acts out violently with his family and in-home caregivers to the point of leaving marks. Accessing the local mental health respite hasn’t been an option because of his DD needs. His mental health funder has also been pushing back against their responsibility to pay for the one-on-one support he needs because it is a direct result of his developmental delays. DD hasn’t been able to offer the respite he needs either. While the two systems continue to have meeting after meeting to determine how to provide supports and who should pay for them, the police continue to go out to the home and he continues to go to the local ER.
Systemic failures continue to put law enforcement officers in difficult situations. Dealing with mental health and developmental disability issues with children shouldn’t need a police response. Supports should be in place to allow families to access services appropriate to their children’s level of care without the added trauma of uniforms and badges with the only safe placement option the psychiatric side of the emergency room. As mental health, child welfare and juvenile justice professionals, we should be pushing for accountability and solutions. These children and their families deserve our best and that’s what we should be striving for each day. Officers are currently doing the heavy work for us and it’s unacceptable.
Michelle Perin
Michelle Perin has been a freelance writer since 2000. In December 2010, she earned her Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.
