Media contact: Lee Carty 202-467-5730 x 121, leec@bazelon.org

 

For Immediate Release
January 25, 2007

Keeping Families Together Act Brings Congress Together on Vital Issue

Washington, DC—The Bazelon Center commends members of the House and Senate who this week reintroduced the "Keeping Families Together Act” (KFTA). The legislation would end the need for parents to relinquish custody of a child in order to access necessary mental health services.  

The bill was introduced in the House by Representatives by Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Pete Stark (D-CA) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and by Senators Collins (R-ME) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) in the Senate.

A 2003 report identified 12,700 children from 19 states who were placed in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in 2001 solely to get access to mental health treatment. This is a horrific national problem. Fortunately, leading members of Congress recognize that a mental health system that cannot offer children with mental health needs access to appropriate services is a system in crisis. Custody relinquishment for these purposes should not and need not happen and we laud the bipartisan support given to this issue.

KFTA would provide $100 million in new family-support grants to states that will end the practice of child custody relinquishment. Parents would be able to obtain necessary mental health treatment for their children and access supportive services that help families stay together. States can create statewide care-coordination programs or deliver mental health care and family-support services to families in need. In addition, the legislation would establish a federal interagency task force to examine mental health issues in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

  The support by Sens. Collins and Harkin and Reps. Ramstad, Stark and Kennedy demonstrates their commitment to the nation’s most vulnerable children and their families. We urge other members of Congress to join these five in sponsoring the KFTA.

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the leading national legal-advocacy organization working to protect and advance the rights of adults and children with mental disabilities.