Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat, has introduced a legislative proposal in California that aims to increase mental health services for children, but the bill is being criticized by opponents who claim it would lead to “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”
Carrillo, however, is claiming that her bill addresses an issue where children from poor backgrounds who are on the state’s Medi-Cal insurance plan are denied the same mental health coverage as other children, the Western Journal reported.
“[Assembly Bill] 665 is about making sure all young people, regardless if they have private health insurance or are Medi-Cal recipients, have access to mental health resources,” Carrillo said, according to the Sierra Sun Times.
However, in the process, parents may end up being mere onlookers to the treatment of their own children.
The measure requires “the professional person treating or counseling the minor to consult with the minor before determining whether involvement of the minor’s parent or guardian would be inappropriate.” It also allows children as young as 12 to “consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services” if they are judged to be a danger to themselves or to others or are allegedly victims of abuse.
“A professional person offering residential shelter services … shall make their best efforts to notify the parent or guardian of the provision of services,” the bill reads.
The measure further says parents should be involved “unless … the professional person who is treating or counseling the minor, after consulting with the minor, determines that the involvement would be inappropriate.”
Credentialed school psychologists are among the professionals approved by the state who could determine what kind of services a child requires under the proposed legislation.
The organization Our Duty is arguing that the bill amounts to “state-sanctioned kidnapping,” according to the Post Millennial.
Erin Friday, co-leader of Our Duty, argued that under the proposed legislation, if a girl were to express to a counselor that she identifies as a boy, the law could be exploited to remove the child from their family and place them in an “LGBTQ housing facility.”
“The parents will have no idea what happened to their child. … Imagine their fear and anxiety. These parents are criminalized without an accusation, evidence or trial,” she noted in a letter to California lawmakers.
Under the bill, “California can steal all of the rights of the parents, and hand over medical and mental health decisions to a child who we do not entrust with any other major decision.”
“These bills are all couched in protecting children from suicide but the opposite results occur when you destabilize them by reinforcing the baseless accusations that a child’s loving parents do not have their best interest in mind,” she added.
