(roanoke.com) “We cannot fathom the agony parents suffer when deciding to relinquish custody of a child with severe mental illness because it’s the only way to afford treatment. Virginia requires families to place their children in foster care to access mental health funds.

This last-resort practice has been allowed under Virginia’s Comprehensive Services Act for At-Risk Youth and Families, a law that governs the placement and funding for many children in need of placement.

A better approach is sorely needed, one that is far less fracturing for families.

Federal law mandates that children in foster care who have mental health issues be provided treatment services by the state. In Virginia, as in other states, parents of severely mentally ill children have been given the option of relinquishing custody when all other resources have been exhausted and when they can’t afford to pay out of pocket for residential programs and other services.

Virginia’s State Executive Council for the Comprehensive Services Act estimated that in 2004 about 2,000 children in foster care were admitted voluntarily by parents or guardians just to obtain mental health care.

Attorney General Bob McDonnell, in an advisory opinion Wednesday, called the practice “wrenching and potentially tragic” and said it may violate the U.S. Constitution. He went further to say that localities that require parents to hand their children to the government to access mental health funds may be too narrowly interpreting state law. (more…)

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I have heard of this in the past. I want to do more reading on this issue.

This makes me angry!!