|
Article Excerpt
In the past 30 years high-conflict families seeking resolution of child custody disputes have inundated family courts. Custody-related evaluations conducted by mental health counselors provide family courts with a thorough and unbiased assessment about the functionality of a family and offer recommendations about custody issues. The authors present (a) a description of mental health evaluations in child custody disputes; (b) ethical considerations involved in the evaluation process; (c) recommendations for conducting custody-related mental health evaluations: and (d) a format for the written report.
**********
Each year about 1.2 million marriages end in divorce, and many divorcing couples have children. In 2006 more than 1.1 million children (13.75%) were living with a parent who was divorced or separated (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007). Though most parents face the challenges associated with divorce or separation in a healthy and successful manner without high-conflict interactions (Johnston & Roseby, 1997; Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakeslee, 2000), in about 10% of divorce cases involving children disagreement on custody and visitation arrangements leads to litigation (Luftman, Vetkamp, Clark, Lanncone, & Snooks, 2005). In these cases, it is often left to the court to make decisions about custody matters, and about 16% of child custody cases are referred to court-appointed mental health experts during the decision-making process (Bow & Quinnell, 2004).
"Mental health evaluations" in the child custody dispute resolution process (also called child custody assessments or custody evaluations) evaluate family functioning to help courts make decisions on custody and visitation (Schepard, 2005, p. 187). Historically, Ph.D. psychologists have performed most of these evaluations (Ramage & Barnard, 2005; Vandenberg, 2002), but as the demand for this assessment has grown in the last several years (Schepard, 2005), more professionals from a variety of disciplines and at all educational levels are now providing mental health evaluations in child custody cases (Martindale, 2007). In fact, Bow and Quinnell (2004) recently found that judges and attorneys referred 42% of cases to master's-level mental health professionals.
Little has yet been written about the role of the mental health counselor in mental health evaluations in child custody cases. A thorough review of the counseling journals yielded only one article on the topic in the last 20 years (see Remley & Miranti, 1991). This lack of attention in the counseling literature does not reflect the reality that more master's-level practitioners are serving as court-appointed evaluators (Martindale, 2007; Schepard, 2005). It may, however, be indicative of the belief that many mental health counselors lack formal training and may not be qualified to perform custody-related mental health evaluations (Martindale, 2007).
We believe that mental health counselors possess the knowledge and skills to be effective mental health evaluators in child custody disputes; however, counselors who provide these evaluations must be familiar with the guiding principles and standards that govern practice in this area. This includes not only the standards of the counseling profession (e.g., American Mental Health Counseling Association [AMHCA] and American Counseling Association [ACA]) but also standards and principles specific to evaluations in child custody cases. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview on conducting mental health evaluations in child custody disputes. Specifically, it presents (a) a description of custody-related mental health evaluations, (b) ethical considerations involved in the evaluation process, (c) recommendations for conducting mental health evaluations, and (d) a format for the written report.
MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATIONS IN CHILD CUSTODY DISPUTES
As family courts are inundated with divorcing families seeking to establish or alter child custody arrangements, it is essential that judges have information about the family that allows them to make decisions that promote the welfare and best interests of the child. Mental health evaluations used in child custody cases give family courts a thorough and unbiased assessment about the functionality of a family and the child's best interests (Gould & Martindale, 2007). Conducted by a neutral and impartial evaluator, custody-related evaluations involve gathering from interviews, observations, collateral information, and formal assessment instruments information related to both individual and family factors, such as parenting skills, parent-child interactions, and a myriad of issues associated with custody decisions (e.g., child abuse, substance abuse, mental health problems, domestic violence, and criminality). Most evaluations include recommendations for custodial or "primary residential" parent (i.e., the parent with whom the child resides more than 50 percent of the...
|
