[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 69 (Wednesday, June 7, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE ATTEMPTS BY CHILDREN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 7, 2000

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following article 
which appeared in the Houston Chronicle into the Record.

               [From the Houston Chronicle, June 3, 2000]

  Panel Told of Mental Health Ills/Suicide Attempts by Children Cited

                         (By Janette Rodrigues)

       Alma Cobb trembled with nervous tension Thursday as she 
     told a roomful of strangers the ways her 14-year-old son, 
     David, has tried to commit suicide since his first attempt at 
     age 5.
       But her voice was surprisingly firm.
       ``He tried to hang himself, stab himself and electrocute 
     himself,'' Cobb testified during a hearing Thursday on 
     children's mental health needs called by U.S. Rep. Sheila 
     Jackson-Lee, D-Houston.
       A transcript of the hearing will go into the congressional 
     record. Jackson-Lee and Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who 
     also attended the hearing, hope to use the transcript in 
     getting Congress to pass legislation improving children's 
     mental health services.
       Studies estimate that 13.7 million American school children 
     suffer from mental health, emotional or behavioral problems. 
     In the Houston area alone, more than 178,000 will need mental 
     health care during their school years.
       Suicide and entry into the juvenile criminal justice system 
     are by-products, advocates say, of a society that shuns the 
     issue and hasn't exerted the political will to address 
     preventable problems.
       Cobb's story and that of other such parents, services 
     providers and mental health professionals was compelling, and 
     sometimes moving.
       But what Cobb has experienced is startling.
       Her daughter, Clara, 14, also suffers from emotional and 
     behavioral disorders. She first tried to kill herself at age 
     7. She and her brother have been absent from school because 
     of their diagnosed mental illness and numerous 
     hospitalizations related to suicide attempts.
       Despite documentation of that fact, Cobb said later, the 
     district where her children attend school considered her 
     children truants, not sick, and fined her more than $3,000 
     and took her to court.
       ``Sometimes, my children can't attend school because of 
     their mental illness and suicide attempts, but schools don't 
     understand it,'' Cobb said, ``They just understand their 
     regulations.''
       Regenia Hicks, deputy director of child and adolescent 
     services for the Harris County Mental Health/Mental 
     Retardation Authority, is familiar with the Cobb family's 
     story. The children receive services through the agency.
       Hicks said their struggle with the school district is 
     unusual but, unfortunately, not unheard of in cases involving 
     children.
       Studies show that at least one in five children and teens 
     in America has a mental illness that may lead to school 
     failure, substance abuse, violence or suicide.
       Most such schoolchildren don't receive adequate help 
     because of the stigma attached to their condition, the lack 
     of early intervention and scarce resources, mental health 
     care professionals and service providers told the hearing.
       Speaker after speaker voiced the need for increased 
     funding.
       ``In Texas, we must be particularly concerned that the 
     state budget for children's mental health services has 
     remained virtually flat since 1993, despite growth in both 
     population and need,'' said Betty Schwartz, executive 
     director of the Mental Health Association of Greater Houston.
       ``Current budget discussions offer little hope for 
     improvement in the coming legislative session.''
       Harris County Juvenile Court Associate Judge Veronica 
     Mogan-Price said the piece of MHMRA's budgetary pie for 
     juveniles is small.
       She and others spoke of their frustration that the juvenile 
     justice system has become a surrogate for mental health 
     facilities.
       Many said it's the norm in Harris County for mentally ill 
     juveniles to get adequate help only after they commit an act 
     that ends with them in a detention facility.

     

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