Bring The Kids Home: Part One

For many years families in Alaska who had children who were emotionally disturbed didn't have a choice, if they wanted their children to get well they had to send them to treatment facilities outside.

Today there is an effort to change that.

This week's Break the Cycle report is the first of a three part series called Bring The Kids Home.

Bring The Kids Home is an initiative that aims to provide more treatment options for emotionally disturbed children so they don't have to go out of state.

The number of kids who fit that description may surprise you and the impact to their families is even bigger.

Brita Bishop with the State Department of Health and Social Services says an estimated 6500 children fit the definition of severely emotionally disturbed. “To get a picture of the scope of the problem I added two parents and one sibling and if you do that you end up with 26 thousand Alaskans that are being impacted" says Bishop.

It's a big problem that until recently had few if any options. Families were forced to send their children to psychiatric facilities out of state. Bishop says the numbers grew at an alarming rate. 

From 1998 to 2004 the number of kids in residential psychiatric facilities outside

of Alaska grew from 73 children to 749, an increase of almost 800%.

The cost to treat them jumped as well. In 2006, the state was spending over 40 million dollars in medicade funds to treat those same children outside, prompting some to say, there has to be a better way.

Bishop says, “The system wasn't broken because kids were getting care. They were getting the care they needed. But what I think everybody acknowledges is that's not the best way for kids to get care.”

Bishop

says children do much better when they can stay in their home communities and their families are involved. “ To have home visits and be able to drop by the facility, be connected to the child and have the child really stay in touch with the family and the siblings.” she adds. 

In the last five years Bring the Kids Home has been working to break the cycle of out of state care, and slowly that is happening. The number of out of state placements has declined and residential beds in Alaska are opening up.

There's also been a new emphasis on community-based services that can keep kids closer to home to get the help they need and programs aimed at prevention.

The goal of bring the kids home is to have enough programs in Alaska by 2013 so that no more than 50 children are getting treatment out of state. Right now that number is just under 200 children in residential facilities outside.

Next week we'll meet a family whose daughter is one of them, and tell you about their efforts to bring her home.

To contact the Newsroom, call 907-274-1111.