(CBS DETROIT) – In conjunction with the documentary release “Connecting the Dots,” CBS stations across the country are looking at mental health issues facing young people. As part of that series, our Influential Communities of Executive Producers spoke with two Michigan families in crisis.
It’s been a rough road for two families from Michigan.
“We have a lot of property damage, in our house, there are holes in the walls, broken windows,” said Janine and Jay Teagarden, parents of a teenager with mental health challenges.
“He’ll tear things off the walls and throw anything he can get his hands on. He’ll, if he’s close enough, hit you, hit you, bite you,” Laura said. Marshall, the mother of another team with similar difficulties.
The families say their adopted sons experienced high levels of trauma early in life, resulting in a long-term need for mental health care.
“Complex post-traumatic stress disorder is his primary diagnosis,” Janine Teagarden said.
“He experienced tremendous levels of trauma from loss after loss. The first official diagnosis we got was reactive attachment disorder,” Marshall said.
Services were provided to the now early adolescent boys through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the respective community mental health departments.
We have done everything that has been suggested to try over the years. Nothing was really making a big enough difference, and the older he gets, the more aggressive the behavior,” Marshall said.
“He just kept attacking me in the parking lot, by the street. I called 9-1-1, so eventually the local officers showed up and they were amazing with him. It was such a big incident that the state was going to press charges. against him and I was like (shaking my head no) he needs mental health care, we don’t need a criminal record,” Janine Teagarden said.
Families sought residential treatment again, the problem with that?
“Probably around the late 1990s, early 2000s, the state of Michigan decided to change the rules about how child care facilities were funded and said that community mental health service providers, CMHs, could not use Medicaid for paid for specialized housing because of concern about restraint and isolation,” said Marianne Huff, President of the Michigan Mental Health Association and a former Director of Community Mental Health.
Leaving the state with about two youth mental health in patient treatments, depending on what you need. Robert Sheehan, and CEO of Community Mental Health of Michigan agrees, “You said it well in your emails, there are no facilities where, unless the child, I mean, that can serve children who have not broken the law, there is no arrested whose parents are not – who have not waived their parental rights, right? There is no – this is not a real system for this, this is the loophole.”
And the solution, these parents say, is unfair and unjust.
Option one, juvenile justice.
“I explained our situation again, our concerns about the ongoing security concerns in our home, walking on eggshells every day about what’s going to take him away next. And this person who is a senior executive with Network 180, community mental health authorities in this region looked me in the eye and informed me that because my son was already involved in the juvenile justice system, I needed to attend court services,” Marshall said.
“Is that what I’m supposed to do? And the truth is, yes! If you want your child to be away from you for a long time, the only way is because you broke the law as a child, or because you’re on welfare of children, none of which the parent wants,” says Sheehan.
“It would take a change in state law because right now, CCIs, as they’re called, can’t use — these are federal terms, seclusion and restraint. You can’t still isolate a child by law. So they’ll I have to say under certain conditions, a child can live in long-term housing, see, because you can isolate a child who’s been arrested, right? If you’re a juvenile who’s been arrested, that’s what you do indeed.”
But Sheehan points out, this is not politics.
“Nobody would say, here’s a good recommendation for you. I shouldn’t say nobody, I mean who knows, right, Amyre, but no, that’s not policy, that’s not good practice. That’s not is the recommendation that anybody would make. But is it, as you said, the only gate to go through, the only gate to go through to get to long-term residency.” Robert Sheehan/CEO, Community Mental Health of Michigan Association
For Laurie, she hasn’t seen her son since early December last year.
“The probation officer, at our request, gave us an hour with our son. And to say goodbye. We had an hour with him in a large open conference room. (how old is he now?) He is 14 . (Where did he turn 14?) In juvenile detention in Kent County. He’s going to turn 15 in the state of Wyoming. I’m going to miss two birthdays,” Marshall said.
Option two. private salary. The Teagardens refused the juvenile justice route and are instead paying for out-of-state care privately at the rate of $15,000 a month.
“Who’s paying for all of this? We are. How? I have to take a deep breath here. It’s been 100% out of pocket. Which, we don’t have any money, so when I say out of pocket, that’s our pension. – There gone. Every little savings we started for college is gone. Every credit card is maxed out. And our house has a second mortgage on it. And it’s all used up. It’s all gone,” the Teagardens said.
A lawsuit was filed in 2018 against the state of Michigan called KB Versus Lyon alleging that the state lacks adequate mental health care resources and treatment options for our youth. It is still pending in the court system. Dave Honigman, the attorney representing the group suing the state, says talks between the state and attorneys have begun on ways to expand resources. In the most recent fiscal year 2023 budget from Governor Whitmer’s office, $625 million was allocated for new investments in behavioral health funding and the workforce.
Included in the 2023 budget deal are $625 million in new investments for behavioral health and health care workforce funding. This includes:
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$50 million to expand pediatric mental and behavioral health capacity across the state.
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$30 million to create crisis stabilization units for mental and behavioral health care.
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$10 million to fund the essential health provider loan repayment program to cover behavioral and mental health professionals.
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New and continued funding of $3.5 million to support the statewide trauma system.
Specifically, the budget reflects protection or enhancement of many MHA priorities, including:
Mental health resources:
Teen Resources through Michigan
Association for Children’s Mental Health
Michigan Mental Health Association
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Macomb County Community Mental Health
