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Article Excerpt
Parents with psychiatric disabilities face many challenges, especially if their children are placed in foster care--the cards are stacked against them regaining custody. To help reunite families, the Urban Justice Center's Mental Health Project (MHP) created a program to help parents with psychiatric disabilities involved in New York State's family court system. To illustrate the obstacles these parents face in regaining custody, I begin with a short story of a particularly tragic case.
Lucy's story
I walked into the MHP reception area where clients wait for their attorneys. Lucy Jones had arrived a few minutes early for our appointment (All names in this article have been changed to preserve our clients' privacy).
"Ms. Jones?" I asked as I reached out to shake her hand. "I am Charlyne Peay. I am the attorney who spoke to you on the phone."
"Oh, yes," she replied, and followed me into my office, where she began telling me why she was here. Lucy started slowly. She had a 10-year-old son named Terry she loved very much, but he had been separated from her by the state of New York.
Lucy explained that during most of her adult life, she had lived on and off the streets of New York City, struggling to keep steady employment and maintain relationships. Not until she was diagnosed with schizophrenia as an adult did she begin to understand the patterns of her life. Following her diagnosis, she was placed in a homeless shelter that served psychiatrically disabled adults, where she met her son's father. A couple months into their relationship, she was pregnant. Consequently, she made every effort to treat her schizophrenia, hoping to become a caring and capable parent for her son. After Terry was born she moved into her own apartment, engaged in psychiatric treatment, and complied...
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