LINCOLN — Would a state agency focused on children's services make a difference for Sam Lanning and his parents?
The Bellevue family has been hitting brick wall after brick wall in trying to get help for its adopted son, Casie Lanning told lawmakers Wednesday.
Medicaid won't cover mental health care for the preschooler, although he slams himself into walls, barely sleeps at night and eats curtains, she said. A state program for families who adopt former state wards provided no answers.
Lanning said the family's struggles illustrate why Nebraska needs a special children's agency.
But Kerry Winterer, the CEO of Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services, said setting up a separate children's agency would lead to new problems.
"Creating a new agency to serve only children will result in fragmenting services focused on the family," he said.
Winterer spoke in opposition to Legislative Bill 821 at a Health and Human Services Committee hearing.
The proposal takes the initial steps toward creating a Department of Children's Services by July 1, 2013. The bill sets up a 26-member Nebraska Children's Commission, which would be required to make recommendations about setting up the new agency.
The commission also would be charged with making a state plan for child welfare reform.
State Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln, who is chairwoman of the HHS committee, said the idea for the commission and the children's agency came from the committee's recently completed study of efforts to privatize child welfare services.
The study found that services for children and their families are fragmented and poorly coordinated and that agencies do not work together to best meet the needs of children and families.
Carolyn Rooker, executive director of Voices for Children in Nebraska, gave the bill enthusiastic support.
She said it offers Nebraska an opportunity for "real, lasting and comprehensive reform" of child welfare and of other services for children and families.
Others offered more guarded support.
Beth Baxter, speaking for the state's regional behavioral health administrators, warned against focusing on state wards at the expense of helping children with mental and behavioral health problems who are not in the child welfare system.
Jennifer Carter, with the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, raised a concern about how services for children would be coordinated with services for families.
Winterer brought up similar questions.
For example, what would happen to youngsters with developmental disabilities? The bill defines a "child" as up to 18 years old, but people are eligible for children's developmental disability services until age 22.
Many public health programs serve both children and adults, such as the maternal and child health block grant and the visiting nurse program.
Instead of a separate agency, Winterer said he is looking at creating a children's services coordinator within HHS to improve collaboration among divisions.
Five of the six divisions of HHS have programs affecting children. Winterer said the divisions are better able to work together because they are part of the same agency.
Reorganization would take time and energy away from providing services, he said.
But Sen. Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins said Sam Lanning and children like him need help.
"I think this (bill) is a great step toward doing something," Bloomfield said.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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