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Seriously Mentally Ill Child? Go Directly to Jail ? Do Not Pass Go

By Janet Langjahr

Two-thirds of juvenile correctional facilities inmates suffer from at least one mental health diagnosis.

Many such children are confined in such facilities because their families are unable to find affordable mental health treatment for them in their communities.

So, the government reports, 9,000 children a year are simply given up by their families in hopes they will have mental health treatment in corrections facilities.

So the children receive what treatment they receive at public expense … from juvenile detention facilities…

The primary residential psychiatric treatment facilities for minor children.

A juvenile criminal record, punishment, neglect, violence and abuse are just part of the nonmonetary price tag.

The current recession’s impact on state and county budgets only aggravates the problem.

Therapists trained in treating children are in short supply and multiple powerful narcotics often become the only treatment these children have.

Read more in this New York Times article: Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on August 22, 2009 (boomark / email).