Date: March 7, 2005
Contact: APA Public Affairs Office
202-336-5700

APA Applauds Congressional Members for Reintroducing Federal Legislation to Address the Tragedy of Parental Relinquishment of Custody to Obtain Children’s Mental Health Services

WASHINGTON – Every year, thousands of families across the country are forced to choose between keeping their child and obtaining access to the health care and services he or she desperately needs.

To help address this national tragedy, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) has introduced the bipartisan “Keeping Families Together Act,” legislation to support statewide systems of care for children and adolescents with serious mental and emotional disorders so parents are no longer forced to give up custody of their children to state agencies for the sole purpose of obtaining mental health services for them.

“There is an urgent need to enact this critical legislation,” said Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D., CEO of the American Psychological Association (APA). “Child and adolescent mental health problems are at a point of crisis for our nation. One out of every ten children or adolescents has a serious mental health problem, and another 10 percent has mild to moderate problems. Tragically, less than half of children with mental health problems receive treatment, services, or support.”

Some of the legislation’s main provisions include: allowing states to expand health insurance programs to cover mental health treatment for eligible children and their families; providing public outreach and education programs; promoting coordinated systems of care; providing training for those who work with children with mental disorders; and helping states track children who enter the welfare and juvenile justice systems to receive treatment for mental disorders.

“This bill lays a strong foundation for needed reforms by promoting access to much-needed services and reducing fragmentation in service delivery that will help put an end to this national tragedy,” added Anderson.

Senator Collins, who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has been working for nearly two years to provide states with more resources to help children with serious mental illnesses. In 2003, she held hearings of her committee and examined a Government Accountability Office report. The report found that in 2001, parents placed more than 12,700 children into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems so that these children could receive mental health services.

Senate cosponsors of the “Keeping Families Together Act” include Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Norm Coleman (R-MN). A similar bipartisan bill was also introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), joined by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Pete Stark (D-CA) and other original co-sponsors.

The APA applauds these congressional leaders for reintroducing this vital legislation and for their ongoing leadership on children’s mental health policy.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.