By Rebecca Lindstrom, Center for Health Journalism, July 8, 2021
Trading custody for care. It’s a term that’s been around awhile, but unless you’re the one confronted with making such a decision, you probably don’t know much about it. It’s basically when parents decide to surrender their child to the state’s welfare agency, in belief the child will get access to better medical or behavioral health care.
As a mom, I couldn’t understand why a parent would even consider it an option. But when our station covered the arrest of a parent that had abandoned her teenage son with Down syndrome at a nearby hospital, I needed to know what would lead a parent to this cliff.
It takes a lot of courage to admit to one person — let alone an audience — that you abandoned your child. But I knew I needed that first person perspective to inform my reporting. There is no data that can truly tell the story. So that’s where I started, looking for parents who would open up about such a tremendous decision.
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