Adoption and safe families act state statutes regarding parents with mental illnesses: a review and targeted intervention.
OBJECTIVE
This paper describes an intervention targeting states that list a parental mental illness/disability as an "aggravated circumstance" under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA), resulting in reasonable efforts not required to reunify a family.


OBJECTIVE
This paper delineates the results from our review of ASFA state statutes, the development of a model ASFA statute, and strategies to educate legislators and the public about the impact of discrimination that parents with mental illnesses encounter because of ASFA legislation with the intent of modifying state ASFA legislation.


METHODS
The following sources were used for this educational initiative: a literature review and a review of ASFA state statutes.


CONCLUSIONS
Adoption of the model ASFA state statute is simply a first step in an effort to end the discrimination that parents with psychiatric disabilities face; additional efforts are also noted.
Kaplan
Katy
K
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. katykap@mail.med.upenn.edu
Kottsieper
Petra
P
Scott
Jeniece
J
Salzer
Mark
M
Solomon
Phyllis
P
D000300:Adoption / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D005195:Family Relations; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011287:Prejudice; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014481:United States