the previous letter was deemed to lengthy.
Here is a revised edition.
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The Schulte Report begins with the sentence “The North Dakota mental health and substance abuse system is in crisis. “ Our son has mental illness.
Now, we are being told that it is common practice for parents to give up custody to the state in order to continue to access prescribed and necessary services.
Two psychiatrists told us that in order to facilitate care, we need to bring our son to the hospital, state that we can no longer care for him, give up custody of our son, terminating our right to seek out mental health care for his needs.
How is this possible?? He is adopted, with attachment disorder, one of many that he has. How does abandoning him to the state affect him?
We have insurance, in fact, our son has dual insurances. He is covered by mom’s policy, and he is covered by the state Medicaid system. Yet, both of these systems can deny him coverage.
The hospital continually informs us that theirs is an acute care facility and refers us to outside agencies. Agencies being hamstrung by insurance companies and the Medicaid system.
After appeal, our son was discharged in January from residential care because he had “plateaued, and no further progress was being made.”
Mental healthcare is expensive, I don’t understand how society thinks it is acceptable to recommend that a parent give up custody of their child in order to access health care that is needed and prescribed by a doctor.
Our state legislators had a chance to correct the issues detailed in the Schulte Report, largely due to House leadership, chose not to.
You can obtain a copy of the Schulte Report through the Legislative Council. The report was received by the Human Services Committee on July 22, 2014.