Originally published September 8 2005
Los Angeles children's mental healthcare found wanting by experts
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Los Angeles County pledged to improve its mental health treatment in its child-welfare system during a 2003 legal settlement, but The Los Angeles Times reports that a court-appointed panel of independent experts has concluded that the county has failed to follow up on its promises.
In the report filed Tuesday in federal court, the panel said the county Department of Children and Family Services "has still not demonstrated a commitment to achieving the objectives of the settlement" and has failed to develop a comprehensive plan to deliver home-care services.
Vincent said the panel estimated that at least 10,000 children under the department's jurisdiction needed intensive home-based mental health services.
County officials acknowledged that they continue to rely on institutional care for many mentally ill children, but said they had made far more progress than the report suggested.
The county says it now treats hundreds more children in their homes and has reduced the number in foster care from 28,000 in 2002 to 23,500.
The settlement stems from a class-action lawsuit that lists as plaintiffs five children who claim they received substandard care.
Advocates for two of those children said their fates illustrated the difficulty children in the county's child-welfare system have in getting mental health treatment.
One teenage boy, known as Gary E., received the mental health care he needed only after he was incarcerated in another state, said Michael Ludin, his court-appointed representative.
Another Ludin client, Katie A., bounced among dozens of group homes, foster families and psychiatric facilities for much of her youth while the county failed to provide adequate care, he said.
The emphasis on treating children at home follows studies showing that children do better academically and are more successful later in life if they grow up in a permanent family rather than bounce from group home to group home.
Gary's attorney obtained a court order that required Los Angeles County to pay for the therapy the boy receives while living with his father.
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