Nebraska closed the loophole in its "safe haven" law that led to parents driving across the country to give up their teenage children to the state. But the problem of parents overwhelmed by their troubled children remains.

"There is a serious lack of comprehensive mental health care for these families," said Darcy Gruttadaro, director of the Child and Adolescent Action Center at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "Nebraska is one state that happened to have this highlighted through its ‘safe haven' law, but it's going on all over."

Nebraska unwittingly opened up this Pandora's box in July, when it passed a law allowing parents to give up children at a state hospital, no questions asked. What lawmakers hadn't anticipated was that many of the 36 children surrendered in Nebraska would be pre-teens or teens, some as old as 17.

One Nebraska woman said she dropped off her 11-year-old son, who she said was bipolar, because of his violent outbursts.

Parents and guardians drove from states as far away as Florida and Michigan. One 14-year-old boy was driven from Yolo County, California. He has since been returned to state officials in California.

Nebraska lawmakers amended the law, effective Nov. 22, to place a 30-day age limit on surrendered children. But the change did nothing to address the lack of mental health services for parents of troubled adolescents.

So lawmakers put together a task force to look into possible gaps in the system when the Nebraska Legislature convenes again in January.

California enacted a safe haven-type law in 2001, called the Safely Surrendered Baby Law. As of June 30, 251 newborns have been safely surrendered.

California avoided Nebraska's problem by including a 72-hour age limit on surrendered infants.

But the desperation parents of older children face is not confined to Nebraska, parents say.

"Nothing ever prepared me to deal with his issues," Camarillo resident Mary Ellen Collins said of her son, who has psychiatric problems.

One parent's journey

Collins, who is now executive director of United Parents Inc., a Camarillo-based parents' and grandparents' support group, said she first became aware of her son's problems when he was in elementary school.

"In the first grade, he began telling people at recess that he wanted to die," Collins said. "In the second grade he was asked to leave a private school because his behavior was so outrageous."

Her son, Zac Erck, became increasingly violent, she said. She took him to therapist after therapist, and he was diagnosed with such disorders as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, personality disorders and depression.

"I think we finally settled on bipolar disorder," she said.

By the time her son turned 11, she was at the end of her rope. Her marriage ended, partially because of the stress caused by Erck's illness. She was now raising Erck alone.

"He was so out of control, he couldn't remain in any school. He was violent, which he brought into the home," she said.

She finally gave him up to a group home, where he lived for about a year and a half. It was an agonizing choice, she said.

"It was like somebody cutting off my arms," Collins said. "I handed my baby over to strangers."

Erck's problems continued through his adolescence, she said, and he got into drugs.

One of the worst parts of having a troubled child, she said, is the judgment she got and still gets.

"People assume parents aren't doing their job when they have a problem child," Collins said.

"Much of what's going on is out of their control."

Collins became involved with United Parents Inc. when her son was in the second grade. She found out she was not alone in her struggle with her child's behavior problems.

"I've seen family after family wiped out, their 401(k)s wiped out," Collins said. "They sell their homes to put their kid into treatment."

The Star contacted Erck, now 19, who drifts between Collins' home and homelessness, but he did not return the call. Collins said he is currently not taking advantage of any social services.

A middle class problem

Nebraska state officials deny there is a lack of services and maintain that some children were abandoned unnecessarily. Some local advocates for the mentally ill agree.

"I think this was an easy cop-out for these parents," said Ratan Bhavani, executive director of the Ventura County National Alliance on Mental Illness and father of two sons. "I'm not going to abandon my son because he has a mental illness."

But Gruttadaro believes avoiding the issue won't work, and the biggest effect will be on the middle class.

"It's a problem that impacts middle-income families," Gruttadaro said. "They max out on private insurance and they don't qualify for public services."

The gap in the mental health safety net is well-documented, Gruttadaro said.

In 2004, the U.S. Government Accountability Office conducted a report on custody relinquishment: parents giving up children to child welfare agencies or the juvenile justice system. The report showed that in 2001, 12,700 families gave up children.

A survey, conducted in 2004 by the office of U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, showed that every day about 2,000 youths are incarcerated simply because community mental health services are unavailable.

"If we help the family early enough, we won't be at a crisis level," Gruttadaro said. "Instead, we're waiting for kids to fail. We're waiting for them to drop out of school or be homeless or truant."

A government that fails to invest in early intervention is penny-wise and pound-foolish, Gruttadaro said.

"If you don't invest in services for kids, they will wind up in your juvenile justice system. They will wind up in your child welfare system," Gruttadaro said. "You will pay for services for these children. It's bad public policy and will produce bad outcomes for these children."

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

On the Net:

http://www.unitedparents.org; http://www.namiventura.org.