kidslaw

Access to Mental Health Care

I rarely weigh in on media issues but after this week's shooting in Arizona, I feel compelled to write about the lack of access to mental health care for many in this country. This is a particularly troubing issue for young adults who may in fact live at home, or on their own, but may be barely functioning and suffering from serious mental illness. Parents will call seeking a "safety net" and are faced with few good alternatives. Parents access to information for this young adult is often limited or restricted.  They ask if they should try to have their young adult arrested as a desperate attempt to get help and what would be triggered by such a response. They may be terrified of the costs of an uninsured hospital stay or the reaction of their child to being hospitalized against their will. Some have attempted to hospitalize their severely ill family member only to be told that at that moment they are not a danger to themselves or others. Other parents live in fear of upsetting this person and triggering a violent or unpredictable outburst. Of all the families I work with, this situation is the most difficult to identify a good or easily available solution. So what do I tell parents in this situation. Here are a few thoughts:

• Safety is paramount. Assuring that no one gets hurt is the most important issue.
• Talk to your local police social worker. Determine whether they have crisis intervention trained police who are experienced with intervening with adults with mental illness.
• Mental illness is a medical emergency. Waiting for it to go away will in all likelihood make things worse.
• Seek help from a qualified professional. (e.g. psychiatrist, social worker, psychologist)
• Call NAMI. (National Association of Mental Illness)
• Don't wait if you believe that your young adult is deteriorating. Explore hospitalization.
• Involuntary committment may be an option. It may save your child's life and someone elses.
• Remove firearms from the house and prevent access. ( this increases the risk of suicide and homicide)

Accommodations Angst

"If you have to choose between a lawyer and someone who can tell what's wrong with your kid, choose the evaluator," says Micki Moran in a recent New York Times article reporting on the anxiety producing process that must be navigated by students who are seeking accommodations on the ACT and SAT.

Click on the link to read the entire article.

Accommodations Angst, New York Times, November 4, 2010

Twenty-Somethings: An Emerging and Expanding Practice

In the past fifteen years of my practice there has been a subtle shift in the age of the clients we represent. Initially, there was a clearer demarcation. Once an adolescent reached 18 and they needed legal help, (eg. arrest, mental health advocacy) they would be referred to an adult/criminal attorney. Not anymore. There are several reasons for the shift. The factors that have changed mirror what seems to be happening on a larger scale in American society.

In our office, we have been working with families long enough that many children we represented early on are now young adults. Our practice areas have expanded in response to the changing needs of our clients. We now have a substantial criminal law practice. We represent older adolescents (as well as younger) in the areas of internet crimes, alcohol and substance abuse related legal problems, sexually based offenses and traffic related offenses to name a few areas we deal with in our office.

Representing young adults requires us to be not only mindful of the law but to take a multidisciplinary view of the developmental issues related to their age. The law generally takes a black and white approach to youth over a certain age convicted of crimes. At 18 you are an adult and held accountable as an adult. Our clients seldom are fully formed adults and for most of them the idea of consequences or the long term implications of their actions are not part of their decision making process. They aren't quite as immature as our young juvenile clients but most are far from developing the maturity and judgment needed to function as competent adults. The term used in the social science literature refers to this group as "emerging adulthood." This rethinking has ben aided by neuroscience. In a recent article in the New York Times, What is it about 20-Somethings?,(New York Times, August 18, 2010), "Neuroscientists once thought that the brain stops growing shortly after puberty, but they know it keeps maturing well into the 20s."

It is our job to educate the courts and others about our client, assist in identifying treatment resources and to focus on minimizing penalties and maximizing interventions. The assumption that change is not only possible but can and will likely occur with the right interventions is an overriding premise of our legal representation. This is informed by the science and psychological research available about this age group. The term "emerging adulthood" was coined by the psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Arnett. Dr. Arnett is the author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens Through the Twenties. (2004, Oxford University Press).

This message is also good news to parents who are despairing of their twenty-something ever "getting it" and moving on in a positive healthy direction.    

For many young adults this movement in the right direction will not come without significant intervention. In the Chicago area we are fortunate to have a program dedicated to the needs of emerging young adults. The Yellowbrick program is located in Evanston, Illinois.

Selected Resources:

Jeffrey Arnett, Ph.D.

Yellowbrick

Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood. A recent NY Times article discussed this developmental theory and the research supporting the unique needs of this age group (18-29). it is certainly our experience in the office that this age group requires representation that takes into account the research in psychology and neuroscience to adequately address the legal needs of these clients. See,What is it About 20-Somethings? NYTimes ( August 18, 2010.)

Teen Drinking in Illinois: License Suspension

As part of our practice, we represent teenagers and young adults who have driving related offenses and issues. Unfortunately, this is a growing area for our office. One of the most frequent issues concerns the possession of alcohol in a car by a passenger, even when the driver or other passengers may not be drinking.

In a recent case, three students (age 18) were driving with alcohol in the trunk. Two of the young men had consumed one beer. The other passenger had not had anything to drink. The students were stopped by the local police and the two who weren't drivng were charged with possession of alcohol. Not fair, they protested. It wasn't their beer. It was in the trunk. They didn't know. Unfortunately, this distinction was lost on the judge and the police. Both received a ticket. As a result, they were also facing automatic suspension of their driver's license.

Driver's License Suspension for Alcohol:

A person under the age of 21 who is found guilty or granted court supervision for a violation of state law or local ordinance relating to illegal consumption, possession, purchase or receipt of alcohol, regardless of whether a vehicle was involved, will face a loss of driving privileges, in addition to any fines imposed. Court supervision for any of these offenses will result in a 3 month suspension of driving privileges; a first conviction results in a 6 month supervision of driving privileges.

School Refusal/School Anxiety

It is all too common in my office for a frantic parent to make an appointment because their student is refusing to go to school or is frequently absent due to feigned illness or depression. Consulting an attorney for this issue may seem perplexing but for many parents the consequences of school refusal are what brings them to our office. Schools will often respond that it is up to the parents to get the student to school. This is a theoretically easier task for a grade school age parent. For the parents of high school or even middle school students it simply isn't physically possible to get them out the door, into the car and to school. Threatening, bribery and other extreme measures often don't produce the desired result - school attendance.

Grades begin to tumble, homework accumulates and students are at risk of losing needed credits. A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, "I Hate School" Extreme Edition, reported that in two-thirds of the cases of school refusal, a psychiatric problem, most commonly an anxiety disorder, is the cause. The same article reported the following:

    "People who experience school refusal behavior and anxiety disorders in childhood may face serious ramifications in adulthood, psychologists say and studies show:

• Depression: Young people ages 14 to 24 who had social anxiety were almost three times as likely to develop depression later on than those without the anxiety disorder.
• Psychiatric treatment: A study of school refusing kids showed that about 20 to 29 years later they received more psychiatric treatment than the general population.
• Alcohol, drug use: A study of children ages 9 to 13 with an anxiety disorder showed that those who still had the disorder seven years after treatment drank alcohol more often and were more likely to use marijuana than those whose disorders had resolved.
• Different life choices: Psychologists say that they've seen young adults with persistent anxiety make fear-fueled choices that can have long term effects; such as selecting a less rigorous college or career."

What should parents do?

• Consult a mental health professional.
• Don't wait for the problem to go away. Seek treatment quickly.
• Meet with the school to discuss a plan to deal with the school refusal. [the longer this goes on the more difficult it will be to deal with]
• Seek out a program for school refusal and anxiety disorders in your area.

 

Divorce and the Economy - Mediation: A Child Focused Option

Our divorce practice has grown steadily over the past decade. Initially, most clients wanted to know how aggressive we would be in dealing with their soon to be ex-spouse. When we discussed our approach to divorce as child-centered and concerned about doing our best to keep the conflict at a minimum, some clients hesitated, thinking that the way to achieve the "best" outcome, both financially and personally, was to approach the divorce as a war to be fought with all the stops out and that the person still standing would emerge the winner. There were many explanations for this view of what getting a divorce required and the role of the divorce attorney. In fact, there are legitimate reasons to be aggressive in certain situations from a legal standpoint but to do so simply to punish or act out the anger resulting from the breakup of the marriage are not among them. For clients who wanted this it was often best to make a referral to another firm since this wasn't consistent with our view of how best to get good outcomes for children and families and clearly the client seeking the scorched earth approach wasn't satisfied either.

Ironically, it appears that the economic downturn has resulted in a need for divorcing families to focus more on practical fair minded outcomes and less on protracted punishing court battles where no party wins and both are poorer as a result.

Our divorce practice has in fact been seeing more clients who want to use mediation as a first step and report the cost-savings as one of the primary reasons for doing so. Mediation is a much better option for resolving issues in the divorce context.

1. It is less expensive.
2. You control the pace.
3. You set the agenda.
4. You establish priorities.
5. Issues regarding parenting the children are in your control and you develop a plan that works for your unique family situation. Both of you own it.
6. You experience a sense of power and control over the process that is almost entirely absent when you litigate the divorce issues.
7. Both parties are more likely to live up to the bargain since they are the people who made it.
8. Your children will be emotionally better off it their parents mediate and work to resolve their concerns without litigation.

The Child and Family Law Center, Ltd. Celebrates our Fifteenth Anniversary

As I sat down to write this blog post, I realized that I started this practice 15 years ago this month. I was a newly single mother with one small office, a desk and a computer. It was my dream to start a law practice devoted to children and families who faced special education issues. I have a son with learning disabilities and I wanted to use my legal training to make a difference in the lives of children. During those first months, I shared an office with my paralegal and office manager and there were many nights that I wasn't sure if this would work.

I have learned so much from the families and kids we have represented over the years. Additionally, it has been a privilege to work with so many other dedicated professionals who collaborate with us to get the needed services and supports for children. I have been lucky to say that in the fifteen years, I have never once had a boring day. Our practice has grown considerably since that first year. We now have several attorneys, paralegals, and our original office manager. In response to our client's needs, we now practice law in the following areas:

• Special Education
• Mental Health
• Guardianship
• Juvenile Law
• Divorce
• Criminal Law
• Custody
• DCFS Defense Work
• Support

Quinn signs anti-bullying legislation

I frequently recieve calls form parents of children who are victims of bullying. The parents are concerned about the effect on their child and frequently complain that the school is turning a blind eye toward the situation. In late June governor Quinn signed a new law that defines bullying to include electronic harassment through social networking sites - that's whether students are subject to taunting based on race, gender, religion, physical disability and now sexual orientation. This law also requires Illinois schools to have gang-prevention training and creates a 15-member School Bullying Prevention task force. The task force must prepare a report for the Illinois governor by March 1.

Legislative Update

Proposed Federal Legislation

H.R. 4247 and S. 2860 - This proposed legislation establishes standards for the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, direct states to develop plans to meet those standards, and bar schools from including restraint or seclusion as a specific behavioral intervention in a child's IEP.

S. 2781 ( " Rosas Law") This proposed legislation replaces the term " mental retardation " with " intellectual disabilities " wherever it appears in the law.

H.R. 2740 ( " The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act") - This proposed legislation permits parents who prevail in due process hearings and litigation to recover their expert witness fees.