A Letter from Matthew

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3,000 children and young adults take their lives each year, making suicide the third-leading cause of death between the ages of 10 and 24. Each year, more that 600,000 young people require medical attention for a suicide attempt.
 

Trying to Get Her Baby Home

Following the hearing, the client stated that if it had not been for the intervention of the Ombudsman, she may still be "fighting to get my baby home."
 

A young woman contacted the Ombudsman's office about a week after giving birth to a healthy baby. This woman had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which had been stable for many years. Just hours after going through labor and childbirth the woman became annoyed by a nurse and verbally snapped at her. The series of events that occurred from this postpartum incident show the stigma and discrimination that continues to exist for persons with a mental health diagnosis. The nurses on the obstetrics ward called child protection and requested a psychiatric consult for possible commitment to a psychiatric facility. The psychiatric consult indicated a stable person who was probably experiencing mood swings following labor and childbirth, coupled by the fact that the woman had not had her medication in over 24 hours. The county child protection intake worker only interviewed these same nurses and based on those nurse's statements, removed the infant from the hospital and placed her/him in foster care. There was no attempt to assess this woman's parenting skills (she had been attending parenting classes to prepare herself for motherhood) or determine if there might be a family member who could care for the infant until this matter was resolved.

The Regional Ombudsman contacted the child protection supervisor, the assigned guardian ad litem, and the client's attorney on behalf of the client to advocate for her rights and make sure the client's voice was being heard by these professionals. The outcome of this very real story is that within about a week of this incident, the infant was initially placed in the home of the client's sister. Following a hearing on the matter several weeks later, the child was returned to the home of the mother.

 

Financial Issue Resolved Fairly

A client called the Ombudsman's Office after being referred by a case manager. The issue was a fellow residential client had obtained key access to all locked rooms and stole money from other clients. The facility had not been responsive to the client's requests for reimbursement of their losses. Ombudsman staff spoke with the program's director who stated that each client signed a statement on admission saying that the facility is not responsible for property that is lost. Ombudsman staff argued that the forms were signed with the understanding that the client's property was to be kept in their secure (locked) rooms, and that a client's ability to access the secure rooms would indicate problems outside client control and therefore negate the signed form.

The program director discussed the issue with administration and it was decided the facility would reimburse only the amount of money the facility knew the clients had. This was determined to be the personal expense money distributed the night before the thefts occurred. According to the police report our client had lost significantly more money than that, so ombudsman staff wrote a letter to the facility seeking the additional missing funds. The facility did then send the client reimbursement in full of the losses. The timing of the repayment was just right, as the client was starting a new job the next day and was able to purchase appropriate clothing for the new position.