Poor Mental Health Can Result in Lost Custody
Posted on Sep 5, 2017 9:00am PDT
Mother (M) and Father (F) never married, but had two children together
Son (S) in 2007 and Daughter (D) in 2008. M and F permanently separated
in 2010, and M retained full custody of the children. M and the children
lived with M’s parents.
Beginning in 2015, M began having mental health issues including psychotic
episodes. She became delusional and her actions scared her children. M
believed she was being stalked, she heard voices, and she thought the
children were controlled by the government. At one point, M attempted
suicide and was finally hospitalized.
Although she sought mental health treatment for her illness, she was inconsistent
in following treatment regimens. She checked herself into a treatment
center and then checked out again because she didn’t like the director.
Her psychiatrist prescribed medications for her. The medicine improved
her condition, but then she stopped taking them.
During this time, M’s parents took over as primary caregivers for
S and D, and did their best to keep M’s psychotic episodes away
from the children. Also, during this time, F maintained a relationship
with his children, providing financial assistance when he could, and exercising
his visitation rights on weekends. However, since he did not have a permanent
address (he sometimes lived with his parents and other times with girlfriends),
he could not take full custody of them.
In February of 2016, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and
Family Services (DCFS) began investigating M and her ability to provide
for the welfare of her children. One month later, the juvenile court gave
temporary custody of the children to M’s parents. In June, the court
the court declared S and D to be dependents of the court, but placed them
in the physical custody of M and F – providing M took her prescribed
medications and the children continued to live in M’s parents’ home.
M appealed.
M argued that a juvenile court can only take jurisdiction over children
when “child has suffered or will suffer, serious physical harm or
illness”, and S and D had never been harmed nor could a court predict
they would be harmed.
The Appellate Court held that the juvenile court did not presume harm to
S and D merely because M has a mental illness. The court was instead concerned
with M’s choice to not consistently treat her illness. M’s
own psychiatrist reported that he would be concerned for S and D’s
safety because of M’s mental condition if M were not medicated.