Ashford: HHS should own up to gap in services

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

One important thing needs to be said at Monday’s safe haven public hearing, the chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee said Saturday.

Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford wants to hear officials of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services — an integral agency in the protection of children of all ages in the state — acknowledge the state has a “huge gap” in mental health and behavioral services for children and youth.

“Then we can all start to work together,” Ashford said. 

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Brad Ashford, Dist. 20, Omaha

Brad Ashford, Dist. 20, Omaha

It doesn’t have a lot to do with what Gov. Dave Heineman called the Legislature into special session to do: lower the age limit on the state’s safe haven bill.

But at the same time, it has everything to do with it.

Allowing for any age child to be dropped off at a hospital without prosecution of the parent or guardian for abandonment, as the state did in its new safe haven law, has exposed the dire straits of some families, both in this state and others.

As of Friday, 25 families — five from other states — had dropped off 34 kids at hospitals, most saying they had exhausted all attempts to get help for the children, most of whom have behavioral or mental health problems.

Todd Landry, director of the state Division of Children and Family Services, has said services are available and in many cases help is just a phone call away.

Ashford and others say that’s just not the case.

“HHS needs to get off the political mantra that says these families need to take care of themselves,” Ashford said. “It’s not a question of fault. But they need to acknowledge there’s a big gap (in services) here.”

The Judiciary Committee will decide what bills, if any, get to the floor for debate.

Or the committee could ask that the scope of the session be expanded.

Any bill can be amended during debate, as long as the amendment is germane to the subject of the bill. Speaker Mike Flood rules on whether an amendment is applicable to the bill.

He has said the issue of services for older children is too big to be decided in a special session and should be introduced in the regular session that opens Jan. 7.

Many senators are hearing from constituents urging them not to change the law.

The sands appear to be shifting  among senators, Ashford said. Many are moving from wanting to slam shut the safe haven door for older children to stepping through it and blazing a trail that leads to dealing with the problems of these families.

“Rather than be embarrassed … Nebraska has an opportunity to be at the vanguard of solving these problems,” he said.

Two bills dealing with the law were introduced Friday. One (LB1) would change the age limit for the safe haven law to 3 days. The other, introduced by Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton, would set the age limit at 1 year or younger, with a second set of provisions for parents or guardians of older children — up to their 16th birthdays — to continue to be able to seek immediate assistance for services from regional safe haven intervention teams.

That bill also will get a public hearing Monday, but it likely would be found to go beyond the limits of what can be enacted in the special session. 

With five days left in the session, senators seem no closer to agreement on how to modify the law than they were in the 2008 regular session — before a compromise on no age limit was reached.

On Saturday, the Legislature met for about 15 minutes. Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery submitted an amendment to LB1 that would change the 3-day age limit to 1 year.

Sen. Tom Hansen of North Platte said Saturday he will introduce an amendment to change the age limit to 4 months.

Whatever age limit is established should be backed up by evidence, Avery said. Infants are most at risk of being killed or harmed by their parents in the first year, he said, citing a 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“A lot of senators are saying they want to hear the debate,” Avery said. “I really don’t think the 3-day bill will pass.”

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.