Care and custody: Family fighting for better youth mental health support

Apr. 18—A family felt forced to surrender custody of a 14-year-old boy to the Children's Division, saying there is little to no support for him and other kids like him dealing with trauma.

The juvenile's parents have pointed to a lack of services, which they said has only made his behavior worse since entering the system more than six months ago. His parents said he's experienced seven short-term stays at local facilities within the past five years, moving between group homes and treatment centers while they wait for a solution.

"After doing everything we could, four and a half years ago I called services on myself just to get him help," said his mother, Monica Williams. "He could have had a normal life, but this is how it is now and it seems like he's got less than a 20% chance."

They started noticing behavioral changes when the boy was 10 years old after he came back from a stay with out-of-state relatives. Over the years, his behavior began putting himself and his family in danger, and they decided in October of 2023 that surrendering him was the only way to keep everyone safe.

His family said he had become violent and threatened to harm himself and others, including his family.

"When certain behaviors, certain things he was doing didn't line up with PTSD like we tried to tell everybody, I started paying more attention,"Williams said. "Aggression, violence, throwing things, tantrums — behaviors equivalent to what you would normally see in maybe a 2- or 3-year-old."

Sometimes, parents of children with severe mental health issues face a tough decision: to get their child costly care or sign their rights over to the state. This family believes they've faced so many challenges due to being low-income.

"In October, when he was taken this last time, me and Monica were the ones that went to all these different facilities to try to find placement, sometimes five or six hours away," said Andrew Williams, his father. "We were talking with CPS, talking with every organization we possibly could to try to help. Everywhere we turned, they basically said to us, 'We don't accept this insurance,' and slammed the door in our faces."

Dr. Sherry Chandy, a behavioral specialist for minors at Mosaic's Outpatient Behavioral Health center — one of the facilities the family took their son to — said health care workers explore every treatment available before deciding a minor is no longer able to be treated.

"We have a bunch of primary care physicians who are seeing patients on a regular basis and they are able to identify most of the kids and teens who need help," Chandy said. "The treatment here, especially for kids, is not just, 'Here, take this medicine' and send them away with the problem solved. We do everything possible until we reach the highest level of care, and here, that is where the person is admitted in the hospital and they're getting 24/7 care with every 15 minutes, someone's laying eyes on you."

Around-the-clock care is what the family wants their son to receive until his mental state is better, but unfortunately, that's not an option for anyone under 18 right now, Chandy added.

The Family Guidance Center is one of the last facilities the family checked their son into before giving their rights to the state, hoping he'd finally receive the treatment they felt he needed.

According to the family, professionals at this facility were flooded with files of the juvenile's health records before realizing they could not provide much help either.

"Once Mosaic wasn't working out, we switched him to Northwest Health Services for a few months and were told they aren't qualified to treat this type of trauma," Monica Williams said. "Have you seen the accordion files most people store multiple files in? That's what his file came in when they were transferred over to Family Guidance, and it barely fit the lid and everything. They also realized there wasn't much help they could provide for us."

In the case of this child, his behavior was putting himself and his family in danger, so his legal guardians decided the only way to keep everyone in the home safe, including his siblings, who the parents say fear their own brother, was to let the state handle it.

"His current case worker is on a mental health leave after only being on the case for two months," Monica Williams said. "But we were expected to do it for five years between the two of us by ourselves, told to figure it out ourselves or give up our other kids to CPS."

After being rejected by multiple foster families and not finding the treatment they're looking for in mental health facilities, he is currently sleeping on the Children's Division office floor during the week as professionals continue to search for somewhere he can be placed, according to the family.

Surrendering a child to the Children's Division is not a magic solution. The agency doesn't provide specialized mental health services and it doesn't have a shortcut. They enter into a temporary custody agreement with the state for six months, with the possibility of renewal.

Mental health professionals say the solution doesn't completely fall in the hands of the Children's Division, but instead, it's about whether treatment is effective at all for a patient.

While in the state's custody, the Missouri Department of Mental Health continues to service patients no matter what, but it doesn't guarantee a child will go back to their normal state depending on the trauma they've dealt with.

"If outpatient services are not successful, then a referral might be made to short-term behavioral health residential program," said Debra Walker, director of public affairs for the state's Department of Mental Health. "The services and role of the DMH remain constant regardless of whether or not a court determined that a minor should remain in the home or be placed under the custody of the Children's Division of the Department of Social Services.

"Services won't have the same effect on everyone when you factor in all of the challenges such as histories of trauma, possibly developmental challenges and many other diagnosis they could be juggling."

While the family wants to see their son live a normal life, a national shortage of licensed mental health workers can make it challenging for anyone to locate local mental health services, said Chave May, children's youth services director at the Family Guidance Center.

"The sad part is, the closest inpatient hospitals that we do have here for kiddos is Kansas City," May said. "Then you have the areas that are even further away like Joplin and Springfield which can create different types of barriers for families because of that distance, and the reality is, we're facing a significant shortage of mental health professionals not just locally but nationwide, which does limit the range of services that mental health providers can offer and how many patients they can see. Some people are waiting weeks or even months to see someone."

Through the struggles, this family has not given up and continues to seek treatment despite seemingly hitting a brick wall each time.

"I work seven days a week, literally, and yet we're trying to make time to do everything we can to get him the help he needs," said Andrew Williams. "We know he'll never be a normal kid again because they waited too long to get him help, but we want to see him be able to succeed. I tell all of my kids they're better than me. I want to see them grow up and they can do anything, but that starts with getting him the proper treatment."

While there is no quick solution for solving mental health issues among children, or even adults, health care workers say staying committed to treatment is a step forward.

"It's a struggle, especially when you're the parent and you're in that moment and it's your everyday life," May said. "But just being consistent and utilizing services and taking as much support as an agency is willing to give you does help. It's going to seem overwhelming and it can be a lot, but it's key."

Jenna Wilson can be reached at jenna.wilson@newspressnow.com.