Saturday, September 09, 2006

Blog: Child victim in Springfield case not eligible for counseling

The "Thinking Things" blog, written by a Springfield-area mental health clinician features a thought-provoking post on some of the services that are no longer available to Missourians since Medicaid cuts were made.
One of those is mental counseling for the five-year-old girl who was thrown off a bridge by her stepfather earlier this week, a case which was featured on the TV news both in Springfield and in the Joplin area:

Medicaid will not pay for a counselor to see her for "crisis intervention" even though she was thrown in a lake by her stepfather because they don't think someone this young could be in a crisis, and according to the minds at Medicaid, the only crisis that would "count" is if the child is suicidal or homicidal. And, by the way, they've told at least one local social worker that someone at age 5 can't possibly be suicidal or homicidal.

These Medicaid administrators have clearly spent too much time in offices.

There are 5-year-olds who've desperately want to be dead. I wish it wasn't true. I wish I didn't know 5-year-olds who threaten to kill people and can tell me how to do it, or who've told me that they want to kill themselves. I wish those memories could be washed out of my brain.

Wishing doesn't make these truths go away.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every day I see more evidence that the republican party is the party who wholeheartedly and sincerely believes in the "survival of the fittest" motto. Of course if the fittest survive usually by taking away from those "less fit" and refusing to share with those who are "less fit", the obvious result is that some will not survive.

The tv said she had bruise marks on her throat. Apparently he tried to strangle her before he threw her in the water and then tried to throw a tire on top of her. Adults would probably have posttraumatic flashbacks and nightmares after someone attempted to murder them and would require counseling. I don't know how anyone could think this child would not have nightmares about it.

Anonymous said...

Always remember, this is the Party in Power, or Regime, that claims the "Kinder, Gentler" America theme. This is the Party that preaches "American Values" "Missouri Thinking". This is the party of "Happy Talk" and nothing else.

If they think for one minute they are the "Moral Majority", they are neither.
Drust