As part of the statewide proposed budget cuts in Virginia, the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents was slated for closure earlier this year. Closing this facility would have eliminated the only state run in-patient psychiatric facility for children. Many of the children sent to this hospital are court involved and struggle with severe psychiatric disorders and violent behavior problems. The challenges presented by seriously mentally ill children are some of the most difficult problems faced by parents and Juvenile Court judges. By the time a child needs inpatient psychiatric care – circumstances are often acute and dangerous.
The political rational for closing the Commonwealth Center was to save approximately $6.6 million. The state would then try to purchase the care from private providers by allocating an additional $2.2 million. What private providers?
Those of us who practice in the legal arena for children with serious mental health disorders know full well the severe limitations that govern the placement of seriously mentally ill children in private hospitals. Even if a family has insurance (many don’t), private or local hospitals often refuse admission for medium or long term care. Showing up in the emergency room is not an option for these cases. Local mental health agencies do not have the resources in place to pick up the slack.
Facing the prospect of closing of the Commonwealth Center, a number of advocates around the state reacted. In a January 2009 article written by psychologist John R. Morgan in the Newport News Daily Press, he correctly observed that: “Untreated acute psychiatric problems will have drastic consequences for these vulnerable children, their struggling families and their concerned communities. In the absence of realistic alternatives, it is ill-advised or even irresponsible to pursue a course which so clearly risks significant harm to children.”
Last March the General Assembly voted to retain funding for the Commonwealth Center and a serious crisis was averted for the time being. Virginia has always been significantly deficient in serving seriously mentally ill children. With the continuing pressure to cut State budgets, we are heading into new and more risky territory for these children, their families and communities. Having learned some lessons from the fight to retain the Commonwealth Center, It is important for advocates to continue strong and strategic responses on behalf .
of children at risk.
