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American Morning

Interview With Susan Collins, Teresa Brown

Aired July 15, 2003 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to another shocking story, every year thousands of American families are faced with a desperate dilemma -- give up custody of a child so that he or she can receive the mental health treatment they need.
Today in Washington, a Senate committee will host hearings on the subject. In a moment we're going to hear from the head of that committee and also a mother who will give emotional testimony.

But first, Patty Davis has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Teresa Brown still remembers September 27, 1999 with dread.

TERESA BROWN, TRADED CUSTODY FOR CHILD'S CARE: That was one of the most devastating days of my life.

DAVIS: The single mom was told by an official in name giving up custody of her mentally ill, then 12-year-old daughter Heather was the only way she could get the expensive treatment her child needed.

BROWN: The day that I gave her up she pleaded with me not to.

DAVIS: Heather's battle with bipolar disorder and emotional trauma was overwhelming.

BROWN: She was assaulting peers as well as myself. She had become addicted to alcohol and drugs and sex.

DAVIS: Brown had tried for years to get help, but got the runaround. Medicaid wouldn't pay.

BROWN: I am very bitter. I am very bitter.

DAVIS: A report by the General Accounting Office shows Brown isn't alone. A survey of just 19 states found an estimated 12,700 children were turned over to state child welfare or juvenile justice systems in 2001 by their parents for treatment of mental illnesses. Middle class families who can't get Medicaid are hit the hardest. Residential treatment facilities can cost $250,000 a year.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R-ME), CHAIR, GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: If the child were physically ill, you would take that child to a doctor. But when a child has a severe mental illness, our system seems to fail them in too many cases. DAVIS (on camera): Senator Susan Collins is working to make it easier for those families to find help, and she's holding hearings on the issue.

(voice-over): A key witness, Teresa Brown, who is now cut out of her daughter's life.

Patty Davis, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Teresa Brown says she is determined to make sure that other parents don't have to endure what she did. She joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning, along with Maine Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Good morning to both of you and I thank you for joining us.

BROWN: Good morning.

COLLINS: Good morning and thank you.

O'BRIEN: Senator Collins, let's begin with you.

Give me a sense of just how big this problem is nationally.

COLLINS: The GAO found that this was a problem in every state that they looked at, affecting some 13,000 children. I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. One mental health advocacy group has estimated that 25 percent of parents with children who are mentally ill have faced the dilemma of relinquishing custody in order to get the care they need.

So I think it's a very big problem.

O'BRIEN: Teresa, we heard a little bit about your story, but I want you to tell me a little more. You gave up custody of your daughter when she was 12, but you first noticed that something was very wrong when she was about six years old.

What did you see?

BROWN: I noticed that her behaviors were getting more aggressive and as time went by, it was more and more aggressive. And she wasn't doing well getting along with peers or anyone else, for that matter.

O'BRIEN: Many people thought it was your fault, you were just a bad parent, right?

BROWN: Yes. They were telling me it was a parenting problem and that the issue was mine.

O'BRIEN: Your daughter, it turns out, suffers from bipolar disorder. She also suffers from hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder.

At 12, she attacked you. What options were given to you at that time?

BROWN: The only option given to me at that time was if I were to give up custody and refuse her to come home with me that day from the hospital, then she could receive the services that she needed.

O'BRIEN: And that was the choice that you made.

Take me back to that day. What was it like to say to your 12- year-old daughter I'm not taking you home, you're going to stay here?

BROWN: That was horrible. She was pleading with me, "Mommy, please don't. I'll be good. I won't do it anymore." And I was telling her, "Baby, it's something you have to do. I mean you've got to get help. You can't go through life like this." And I promised her she'd be home some day and unfortunately...

O'BRIEN: In your mind, was that the only option you had?

BROWN: That was the only option.

O'BRIEN: You felt you were saving her life?

BROWN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Your daughter is 16 years old. You haven't lived with her for four years. What is your contact with her like now?

BROWN: At this time I have no contact whatsoever.

O'BRIEN: You have no say in what she does, what she studies, where she goes? Why is that?

BROWN: The treatment team and Department of Human Services feels it's in her best interests that she does not have contact with me at this time.

O'BRIEN: And because you relinquished custody, you have no say in the matter, is that right?

BROWN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Explain to me how heartbreaking that is as her mother.

BROWN: It's beyond words. It's left me empty. It's like I don't have a home, I have an apartment, because without my daughter I don't have a home, because I don't have my family together. And I just keep reaching to keep my family.

O'BRIEN: Senator Collins, the cost, as we heard, is high, up to $250,000 a year per child in any kind of mental health situation. How do you go about tackling this problem? Where do you think the solution lies?

COLLINS: Well, first of all, no parent should have to make the kind of agonizing decision that we just heard about from Teresa. What we need to do is to have a coordinated system of care so that children can stay with their families and still get the care that they need. That means more flexibility in spending Medicaid dollars. It means more coordination among the various agencies that provide services. And no parent should have to relinquish custody to get care. That's the bottom line.

O'BRIEN: Senator, how long do you expect these hearings will last and will something tangible come out of them at the end?

COLLINS: Yes, something tangible, indeed, will. We're going to have two days of hearings this week, today and Thursday. And I hope that will shine a spotlight on the problem and help me build a coalition in support of legislation, bipartisan legislation that I'm going to be introducing to provide states with some grant money and technical assistance so that they can come up with a system for caring and meeting the needs of families with children with severe mental illness.

O'BRIEN: Senator Susan Collins of Maine, I thank you for joining us. Teresa Brown, as well.

COLLINS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: We wish you the very best of luck with your daughter. Our hearts go out to you.

Thanks for joining us and sharing your story this morning.

BROWN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 15, 2003 - 07:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to another shocking story, every year thousands of American families are faced with a desperate dilemma -- give up custody of a child so that he or she can receive the mental health treatment they need.
Today in Washington, a Senate committee will host hearings on the subject. In a moment we're going to hear from the head of that committee and also a mother who will give emotional testimony.

But first, Patty Davis has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Teresa Brown still remembers September 27, 1999 with dread.

TERESA BROWN, TRADED CUSTODY FOR CHILD'S CARE: That was one of the most devastating days of my life.

DAVIS: The single mom was told by an official in name giving up custody of her mentally ill, then 12-year-old daughter Heather was the only way she could get the expensive treatment her child needed.

BROWN: The day that I gave her up she pleaded with me not to.

DAVIS: Heather's battle with bipolar disorder and emotional trauma was overwhelming.

BROWN: She was assaulting peers as well as myself. She had become addicted to alcohol and drugs and sex.

DAVIS: Brown had tried for years to get help, but got the runaround. Medicaid wouldn't pay.

BROWN: I am very bitter. I am very bitter.

DAVIS: A report by the General Accounting Office shows Brown isn't alone. A survey of just 19 states found an estimated 12,700 children were turned over to state child welfare or juvenile justice systems in 2001 by their parents for treatment of mental illnesses. Middle class families who can't get Medicaid are hit the hardest. Residential treatment facilities can cost $250,000 a year.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R-ME), CHAIR, GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: If the child were physically ill, you would take that child to a doctor. But when a child has a severe mental illness, our system seems to fail them in too many cases. DAVIS (on camera): Senator Susan Collins is working to make it easier for those families to find help, and she's holding hearings on the issue.

(voice-over): A key witness, Teresa Brown, who is now cut out of her daughter's life.

Patty Davis, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Teresa Brown says she is determined to make sure that other parents don't have to endure what she did. She joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning, along with Maine Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Good morning to both of you and I thank you for joining us.

BROWN: Good morning.

COLLINS: Good morning and thank you.

O'BRIEN: Senator Collins, let's begin with you.

Give me a sense of just how big this problem is nationally.

COLLINS: The GAO found that this was a problem in every state that they looked at, affecting some 13,000 children. I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. One mental health advocacy group has estimated that 25 percent of parents with children who are mentally ill have faced the dilemma of relinquishing custody in order to get the care they need.

So I think it's a very big problem.

O'BRIEN: Teresa, we heard a little bit about your story, but I want you to tell me a little more. You gave up custody of your daughter when she was 12, but you first noticed that something was very wrong when she was about six years old.

What did you see?

BROWN: I noticed that her behaviors were getting more aggressive and as time went by, it was more and more aggressive. And she wasn't doing well getting along with peers or anyone else, for that matter.

O'BRIEN: Many people thought it was your fault, you were just a bad parent, right?

BROWN: Yes. They were telling me it was a parenting problem and that the issue was mine.

O'BRIEN: Your daughter, it turns out, suffers from bipolar disorder. She also suffers from hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder.

At 12, she attacked you. What options were given to you at that time?

BROWN: The only option given to me at that time was if I were to give up custody and refuse her to come home with me that day from the hospital, then she could receive the services that she needed.

O'BRIEN: And that was the choice that you made.

Take me back to that day. What was it like to say to your 12- year-old daughter I'm not taking you home, you're going to stay here?

BROWN: That was horrible. She was pleading with me, "Mommy, please don't. I'll be good. I won't do it anymore." And I was telling her, "Baby, it's something you have to do. I mean you've got to get help. You can't go through life like this." And I promised her she'd be home some day and unfortunately...

O'BRIEN: In your mind, was that the only option you had?

BROWN: That was the only option.

O'BRIEN: You felt you were saving her life?

BROWN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Your daughter is 16 years old. You haven't lived with her for four years. What is your contact with her like now?

BROWN: At this time I have no contact whatsoever.

O'BRIEN: You have no say in what she does, what she studies, where she goes? Why is that?

BROWN: The treatment team and Department of Human Services feels it's in her best interests that she does not have contact with me at this time.

O'BRIEN: And because you relinquished custody, you have no say in the matter, is that right?

BROWN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Explain to me how heartbreaking that is as her mother.

BROWN: It's beyond words. It's left me empty. It's like I don't have a home, I have an apartment, because without my daughter I don't have a home, because I don't have my family together. And I just keep reaching to keep my family.

O'BRIEN: Senator Collins, the cost, as we heard, is high, up to $250,000 a year per child in any kind of mental health situation. How do you go about tackling this problem? Where do you think the solution lies?

COLLINS: Well, first of all, no parent should have to make the kind of agonizing decision that we just heard about from Teresa. What we need to do is to have a coordinated system of care so that children can stay with their families and still get the care that they need. That means more flexibility in spending Medicaid dollars. It means more coordination among the various agencies that provide services. And no parent should have to relinquish custody to get care. That's the bottom line.

O'BRIEN: Senator, how long do you expect these hearings will last and will something tangible come out of them at the end?

COLLINS: Yes, something tangible, indeed, will. We're going to have two days of hearings this week, today and Thursday. And I hope that will shine a spotlight on the problem and help me build a coalition in support of legislation, bipartisan legislation that I'm going to be introducing to provide states with some grant money and technical assistance so that they can come up with a system for caring and meeting the needs of families with children with severe mental illness.

O'BRIEN: Senator Susan Collins of Maine, I thank you for joining us. Teresa Brown, as well.

COLLINS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: We wish you the very best of luck with your daughter. Our hearts go out to you.

Thanks for joining us and sharing your story this morning.

BROWN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com