Arizona Mother Seeks to Change State Law That Nearly Cost Her HerDaughter...

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...se,88075.shtml

Arizona Mother Seeks to Change State Law That Nearly Cost Her Her
Daughter..



PHOENIX, April 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mikayla Bailey Null is on a
mission to change Arizona child welfare laws to protect the rights of
parents who have mental illnesses -- and their children.

On a vacation two years ago, Null had an argument with her 14-year-old
daughter. She ended up slapping the girl, who then ran out of the cabin.
Before the dust had settled, police arrived. Null told the police that,
after her daughter had misplaced the medication Null needed to relieve
the symptoms of her bipolar disorder, she had taken a sedative to help
her get some sleep and had reacted badly to it. The police put Null's
daughter in foster care and Null was arrested. She is certain that it
was her diagnosis that led the police to arrest her instead of taking
her to a hospital -- the protocol for a bad reaction to this particular
medication. "I was charged with felony child abuse and felony assault on
a child because of a slap on the face," Null said. "I'm sorry I slapped
my daughter but I'm certain that, if I had not had a diagnosis of mental
illness, I would not have been charged so severely."

Null's daughter was soon released to the custody of Null and her
husband. Although there was no history or evidence of past abuse,
Arizona Child Protective Services made the unfounded assumption that
Mikayla posed a chronic threat to her daughter. The agency began to
visit the family at home, making "reasonable efforts" to preserve the
family as mandated by the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997. Eventually Null asked to discontinue the visits because they so
distressed her daughter. Without warning, child welfare authorities
showed up at the girl's school and took her back into foster care. "They
put a note on my door," Null recalled. "I can't even describe the trauma
of having to have supervised visitation with my daughter, whom I had
adopted from another country because I wanted this child so badly." The
girl, taken from a loving family and thrust into a group home, was also
traumatized. "She didn't smile for over a year," Null recalled.

It took Null three months of calling the Governor's office every other
day until she got her child back. The experience has turned her into an
advocate for other parents. "I realized that there were people out there
like me," she said, but little help available to them. "It's a brick wall."

Null discovered that Arizona is one of a number of states that list a
parent's mental illness as one of the grounds for not providing
reasonable efforts to reunify a family. The relevant portion of Arizona
state law (8-846) notes that "reunification services are not required"
if the parent or guardian has "a mental illness or mental deficiency of
such magnitude that ... the parent or guardian is unlikely to be capable
of adequately caring for the child within twelve months after the date
of the child's removal from the home."

Although such a finding is based on the judgment of a psychologist or
physician, Null believes that parents cannot assume that such judgment
will be unaffected by the stigma and discrimination associated with
mental illnesses.

Null's goal is to change Arizona law. "I'm trying to help other families
so that what happened to my family won't happen to anyone else."

The UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration of Individuals with
Psychiatric Disabilities is publicizing Null's situation as part of its
mission to educate legislators and the public about the stigma and
discrimination associated with mental illnesses and their impact on
families.

UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration..






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA/CIA
WIRETAPING PROGRAM....

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEIR
"FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...