I agonize over that daily. I'm wrestling with the guilt I have either way. People shouldn't have to break up their families to get their children care. Parents face tremendous fears for their children, fears too often realized when treatment is not available for a serious mental illness in a child or adolescent. Perhaps most heinous in the survey results was the finding that families continue to face the specter of losing custody of their children to get treatment.
Violence is another worry of parents with children with a serious mental illness.
Parents worry that, without treatment, wrongful imprisonment in the juvenile justice system will be the result of their children's mental illnesses. Thirty-six percent of our respondents reported that their children were placed in juvenile justice facilities because needed services were not available. The neglect of children with a serious mental illness clearly has dreadful consequences for the children and their families. No family with a child with an illness should have to give up custody to receive care or live in fear of violence or the imprisonment of their youngster.