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Welcome to the new home of the Michigan
Association for Children with Emotional Disorders. Check back often for exciting new updates
to the MACED website. |
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Children, mental illness,
and the justice system One of the most critical issues in society today is
the shameful shift of children suffering from emotional disorders from the
mental health system to the juvenile justice system. Children with untreated
or under-treated emotional disorders have psychiatric symptoms that are mistaken for delinquent behaviors, often
leading to prosecution in the juvenile justice system. As a consequence, a
large percentage of children committed to detention and juvenile justice residential
facilities have a diagnosable emotional disorder or mental illness. Studies
show consistently that 65% of children in
juvenile justice placements
have a diagnosable emotional disorder, and that 35% of all children in those
facilities have a serious emotional disorder or mental illness. In Michigan, the numbers are as high or higher, as
shown by assessments done of children entering the juvenile justice system in
Wayne County. The screenings reveal
that over two-thirds of those children have a diagnosable emotional
disorder. Ten years ago, the number of
children in this dilemma was far lower.
The dismantling of the mental health system, and the “Get Tough”
attitude toward youth that has permeated social policy in Michigan for the
past decade have left large areas of the state without the necessary array of
mental health services for children in the public or private sector. There is only one remaining state hospital
for children and adolescents, Hawthorn Center in the City of Northville,
funded for only 94 beds. There are only 320 private hospital beds for
children remaining in the State and those are not geographically accessible—there
are no private beds for children in Wayne County and in large areas of the
rest of the State. On the residential
side, the picture is equally bleak.
Figures from 2001 show 523 residential mental health beds for
children, down 473 from 2000, and the number continues to fall, creating long
waiting lists and delaying adequate treatment for children, causing further
deterioration in their mental health status. It is indefensible social policy, but the dollars
saved by the closure of mental health facilities for children with emotional
disorders have not been utilized to provide needed care in the
community. Children with emotional
disorders comprise 25% of the mental health caseload. During the last decade, however, funding
for children with emotional disorders fell on average from 20% to 7%, of all
mental health expenditures in Michigan.
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