Father may be forced to abandon son

KUSA - A veteran Aspen Police officer who has struggled for years to care for his mentally ill child may lose his parental rights so the boy can receive the treatment he needs.

John, who was promoted to sergeant last month, told 9NEWS the violent outbursts of his 11-year-old bipolar son, Cassidy, poses a danger to the boy and the rest of the family.

9NEWS is not revealing the family’s last name to protect Cassidy from being linked with this story in the future.

The situation was further complicated after Congressional cuts to Medicaid last year took most of the funds available to pay for Cassidy’s professional care. Congress cut $12 billion to Medicaid over five years.

Unable to care for Cassidy at home, and unable to any longer afford the thousands of dollars in costs for the residential treatment facility the child needs, John now faces a hearing next month to determine whether he will lose his parental rights to his son.

“It continues to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” John said. “It’s exhausting. It just gets into every moment of your life.”

John, 36, is divorced from Cassidy’s mother, who is described in medical records as a “low functioning schizophrenic.” She has been institutionalized many times. After their divorce, John retained full custody of Cassidy. He remarried and is now a stepfather to his wife’s two daughters.

Records show that Cassidy’s violent outbursts began in preschool and escalated in first grade, when he began to hurt his siblings and friends. He was first hospitalized at age 7, and diagnosed at age 8 as having severe Bipolar Disorder that causes homicidally violent rages.

“He can be very happy and suddenly very violent,” John said. “Then he feels terrible remorse.”

Cassidy has been institutionalized 11 times over the past four years, with outbursts so violent that treatment facilities began to refuse him. Most of the cost of the treatment — about $169 a day - was picked up by Medicaid, with John paying the rest; about $650 a month. Even with Medicaid picking up a majority of cost of Cassidy’s care, John had to file bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills.

After the loss of funding, the amount Medicaid paid the residential treatment center dropped to $12 per day. Cassidy’s father faced paying between $3,000 to $6,000 a month for his son’s care.

Since he could no longer afford his son’s care, officials at the facility treating Cassidy, Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan, told John to come get his son.

He refused.

“It was the only way,” he said, for Cassidy to remain in treatment.

The facility contacted Social Services, who filed dependency and neglect charges against John and began termination of parental proceedings against John for abandoning his son.

It’s a situation that devastates John, and frustrates legislators who have tried to come up with a solution.

“It’s the last thing I wanted to do,“ said John. “How could I ever explain to Cassidy why I abandoned him, but I had to do it to get the care he needs.”

State Senator Moe Keller says she tried to address the problem in the 1990s, when she backed a bill that allowed for Medicaid funding of mentally ill children even if the child’s parents retained their rights.

With the cuts to Medicaid, Keller said, the situation is now moot.

“You wouldn’t do this, and we don’t, if the child had diabetes, if the child had kidney failure, or if the child had cancer, you wouldn’t ever do that to a parent or to a family,” said Keller. “But when the child has mental illness in the end, nobody wanted to pay.”

Cassidy currently resides in the Devereux Cleo Wallace center in Broomfield while a judge awaits testimony on his fate and is in temporary custody of Pitkin County Social Services. John and his family still visit Cassidy every two weeks and most recently made the trip on the weekend of February 10. John is still active in Cassidy’s everyday care.

State Human Services officials say one option the judge will have is to make Cassidy a ward of the state. Then Pitkin County and the State of Colorado will have to decide who will pay for Cassidy’s care.

Eventually, Human Services will try to have Cassidy stabilized enough to enter a therapeutic foster home where trained foster parents could care for him. John hopes eventually Cassidy will be well enough to return home.

To read a testimonial by an adult living with Bipolar Disorder you can click here. The testimonial also includes important links for parents looking for help.