When Giving Up Custody Is The Only Way To Get Affordable Health Care; Forgotten Desserts
23-year-old Daniel Hoy's parents gave him up to the state when he was 12 after exhausting all other options to get him treatment for severe post-traumatic stress disorder. After suing the state, they were able to regain custody. VINNIE MANGANELLO/WFYI
On the 21st: Parents who can’t afford the price tag of mental health treatment may consider a workaround as a last resort: giving up custody of your child to the state. Plus, we revisit some of our beloved classic dessert recipes before the advent of the refrigerator.
We hear a lot about how expensive health care in America is, and how tough the system is to navigate. This can be particularly true if you’re a parent of a child with a serious mental illness.
That’s because sometimes these children need a level of care that can’t be provided at home. But 24/7 residential treatment costs $150,000 a year. And insurance companies will often deny coverage.
New reporting from Side Effects Public Media shows parents who can’t afford that price tag may consider a workaround of last resort. If they give up custody of their child, the state will step in, place the child in treatment, and pay for it.
But this decision to give up custody comes with a price of its own. And no one knows this better than Toni Hoy. She’s a mother, whose son Daniel has a severe mental illness. She lives in Rantoul.
We also spoke with Christine Herman, a reporter with Illinois Public Media and Side Effects News who worked on this for the podcast "The Workaround." Heather O’Donnell also joined us. She's a lawyer and vice president of public policy and advocacy at Thresholds, a mental health facility in Chicago.
Plus—
There’s always a new food trend, right? And with the way everyone blogs - Instagrams or posts these to Pinterest - it’s easy sometimes the classics.
Those classic recipes can be a way to remember our family, our friends and even our roots. That’s what Niki Davis is a believer in this philosophy. She writes The Taste column for The Southern newspaper and has has her own website called Rooted in Food. Niki also teaches Hospitality and Tourism Administration at Southern Illinois University, and she joined us from Carbondale to share some Illinois classics.