LINCOLN, Neb.—Nebraska lawmakers are likely to debate bigger changes than Gov. Dave Heineman wants to make to fix the problems highlighted last fall by the state’s old safe-haven law.
During a heated legislative hearing on Wednesday, the chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee promised the committee would advance a bill (LB356) that supporters say would make it easier for children to get mental health services.
“I will guarantee this bill will go on the floor,” said Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the committee.
Heineman’s administration opposes the bill, saying it is riddled with flaws, is ambiguous, could cause courts to meddle unnecessarily in families’ lives, and would cost millions. Backers of the measure said state officials’ estimate that the bill would cost between $110 million and $160 million annually was way off the mark.
And some took state officials’ opposition as a sign that Heineman’s administration continues not to acknowledge deep problems revealed by the rash of child drop-offs last year.
“It seems to me like there is an attempt to draw a line,” by state officials, “and the line is ‘We don’t have any responsibility to help parents until it gets this bad’,” and kids are in immediate danger, said Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha.
Lathrop was speaking to Scot Adams, director of behavioral health for the state Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke in opposition to the bill. Adams said the line state officials use to determine if kids should get help is safety, but admitted that the line “gets blurry.”
As children were dropped off at hospitals under the old safe haven law, state officials maintained that many of them didn’t pose an immediate danger to themselves or others and that they had already received mental health services under Medicaid. In all, 36 children were dropped off at hospitals last fall before Heineman called a special legislative session and lawmakers added a 30-day age limit to the law.
The purpose of both the original and modified law is to prevent newborn babies from being abandoned in trash bins, or worse.
Under the measure from Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton that is opposed by Heineman’s administration, parents could request mental and other behavioral health care for their for their children from any of the six behavioral health regions in the state.
The plan was developed with help from a Sarpy County Juvenile Court judge.
Dubas said too often in what she called the “fragmented and chaotic” system that now exists, kids only get help if they commit criminal acts and enter the court system, or if their parents give up custody so their children become wards of the state.
Leslie Byars said she and her husband tried to help their 9-year-old daughter, but after suicide attempts and seven hospitalizations, they could no longer get insurance coverage. So they relinquished their parental rights and made her a state ward. Their daughter is now 23 years old.
“I realize that for people who don’t experience this…they don’t know what we go through,” Byars said.
Byars tried to appeal to lawmakers’ fiscal sensibilities by arguing that making it easier to get children mental health care early on could save the state money in the long run by reducing the need for services as they grow older.
Child advocate Kathy Bigsby Moore estimated the state now spends between $6 million and $8 million annually on behavioral health for children, who she said receive less care than adults do under the current system.
“As a state, we have somehow decided not to provide for children,” she said, and children oftentimes can only get help if they go through the court system.
But Adams pointed out the measure would require court oversight of children who received services under the measure.
“This bill would cause undue court involvement,” Adams said. He also pointed to what he said were other flaws in the bill, including who would make decisions about whether children received ongoing care.
Adams instead supports another bill (LB346) introduced on behalf of Heineman that would establish a statewide hot line. Desperate parents could call to find out where to get help for their children with behavior, mental health or other problems.
That bill from Sen. Tim Gay of Papillion would also provide more counseling, therapy and other services for families after they adopt foster kids or become their guardians. Many of the children dropped off under the old safe-haven law had been foster children.
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