It’s difficult to tell how many custody relinquishments happen each year, but statistics on psychiatric lockout seem to indicate a worsening problem. Screening, Assessment and Support Services (SASS), a division of the Illinois Department of Human Services, says in an internal report that the number of psychiatric lockouts statewide more than tripled from 30 in 2003 to 104 in 2010. The Community and Residential Services Authority (CRSA), a state agency which guides parents through the maze of child wel fare
services when they have trouble, indicates in its 2009 and 2010 annual reports that custody relinquishment happens frequently enough to be a significant concern.
“Parents who attempt to access services through lockout in many instances end up relinquishing guardianship to the state and are often treated systemically as abusive or neglectful parents,” CRSA notes in its 2009 report.
“CRSA staff do not believe that lockout is an effective mechanism for service planning and the CRSA board has long believed that parents should not be forced to give up guardianship and parental rights to their children simply to get their service needs met.”
The reports note that “referral to CRSA often implies a breakdown or a gap somewhere in the state service system.” CRSA cases increased from 355 in 2009 to 374 in 2010, with about half of cases from both years coming from families seeking residential care for a child with severe emotional disturbances or behavioral disorders. Of CRSA’s 355 cases in 2009, 32 came from Sangamon County.
John Schornagel, executive director of CRSA, which is based in Springfield, says custody relinquishment cases are the ones that “fall through the cracks” between the services offered by the half-dozen child-serving state agencies, including those that provide postadoption services.
“I wish lockouts didn’t happen,” Schornagel says. “As a group of agencies and as a state, we need to find a solution to custody relinquishment. Certainly, DCFS has a good clinical division, and they’re capable of han dling adopted kids who are at risk for adoption disruption. But for parents to have to go through the living hell of abandoning their kids to the system simply to get their mental health needs met is just the wrong way to go. There must be a better way.”
Schornagel says that of the more than 10,000 cases CRSA has handled in its 26-year existence, only 44 have required the CRSA board to step in and issue non-binding recommendations to resolve a conflict between state agencies and adoptive parents seeking services. Most cases get resolved before they get to the psychiatric lockout stage, Schornagel says, adding that many conflicts can be resolved if parents contact his agency for help securing services before a psychiatric lockout ever becomes an option.
