What kind of a state have we become?

by Jack Stapleton, Jr.

What kind of state are we living in and what has Missouri in the year 2002 become? I raise the question after learning details of what our state government has been doing to the parents of mentally ill children.

When I learned the details of this horrible situation, I was embarrassed to call myself a Missourian, a sentiment that has rarely altered my view of a remarkable state populated by remarkable men, women and children. Perhaps you have read that in our great state, the parents of children with severe emotional or mental problems must sometimes be charged with neglecting or abandoning them, thus surrendering custody of their children to the state.

Unless this dramatic and drastic action is taken, sometimes even parents with mid-level income are unable to afford the kind of psychiatric care their children needed to lead normal lives. Many times the cost of adequate treatment will exceed the family’s total annual income. Obviously, if help is to be given, federal programs, such as Medicaid must be utilized by the state’s Mental Health Department to treat and care for deserving children.

How many cases are we talking about? Right now only about one in every five children needing treatment is receiving it, providing they spend months, even years, waiting for assistance. If you’ve been paying attention recently, you know Missouri is in no position to launch new programs costing millions of dollars to care for these neglected patients. You also probably realize that it will be a cold day in you-know-where before this session of the General Assembly enacts a parity provision for private insurers to include mental as well as physical care coverage.

Thus the best option for parents is to utilize Medicaid, except this has, right up to this moment, required them to give up legal custody of their special kids. Some 42,000 families in Missouri face this dilemma today. Many parents who have already signed the legal document giving up their custody are still suffering from the shock of this traumatic act.

Whether for reasons of sheer pragmatism or compassion for citizens already suffering from the effects of mental illness among their children, the very least that should be done is to make their sacrifice as easy as possible. I suppose this step will be taken before the General Assembly adjourns next month, although there’s no ironclad assurance, nor is there any evidence of urgency on the part of most public officials whose offices are in our state Capitol.

I might add an additional “little” problem: the dramatic cuts already recommended for the Department of Mental Health in the fiscal year starting July 1 make no provision for treating additional children in the state’s mental clinics or by the state-funded community mental health centers scattered throughout Missouri. Even if the custody problem is resolved, additional staff will be required to treat these children in the months and years ahead.

The late Hubert Humphrey once observed that the nature of any society can best be judged by the way it treats its youngest and most vulnerable citizens, a moral yardstick that would seem to indict our state as well as many others in the U.S.

While Congress frets over its usual partisan differences and the General Assembly is transfixed on building new athletic and convention centers in the cities, the most vulnerable among us — thousands of mentally and emotionally disturbed children — are left without treatment.

What kind of a state has Missouri become? More importantly, what kind of a state will Missouri be in the next few years?

[Missouri News & Editorial Service, Inc. Copyright (C) 2002 MNES Corp.]