Blog addresses lack of funding for counseling for children

The Thinking Things blog, written by a mental health clinician from Springfield, in the latest post once again addresses the topic of Medicaid cuts to counseling for children with severe problems:

"One clinician, who has moved to a different state recently to be able to actually perform counseling for children in poverty, was audited by Missouri Medicaid. The auditors said this clinician had an "excessive" number of crisis intervention sessions. During the time period audited, the clinician had billed five (5) crisis sessions. An example: a four year old child hitting, kicking and spitting on a teacher and threatening to kill the teacher with a knife. How about the four year old child who brought his older brother's switchblade knife to preschool and told another child exactly how he planned to use it to hurt a teacher. Or this one: a child with an autism spectrum disorder cannot tolerate change or a new environment. He takes a pair of scissors and stabs another 4 year old in the face, barely missing an eye.

"Sounds like crisis behavior to me.

"But, the same state that licenses counselors and social workers also seems to think that the people who man the fax machines have better clinical instincts about the children."