Mom given ultimatum as son struggles to find psychiatric care

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A local mother has been struggling to find psychiatric care for her adopted son.

Like most parents, Katherine Noto hangs her kids' artwork on the wall.

However, one piece represents the years of abuse and neglect her two sons endured before she adopted them.

[LINK: Interested in adoption?]

“They know God was always with them and watching over them and keeping them alive to get them to me,” Noto said.

[LINK: Support group ATTACH Families]

However, the trauma left her youngest son with a severe attachment disorder that sends him into violent rages, with the most recent coming on Dec. 9, 2018.

“He took a frame on the wall and stomped on it so he could get the shards of glass,” Noto said. “He had it to his wrist. I got it away from him, and he picked up another one to get me with.”

Noto said she took him to Atrium's Behavioral Health Center, where they found he was a threat to himself and other so much so, that he needed to be in a residential facility.

She said social workers couldn't find a proper placement for him, and days later, when it seemed he had improved, they told her he was being discharged.

“I told them I would not be coming to get him. It was too dangerous for the safety of my other child and myself, so we need to keep looking for a bed,” Noto said.

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Noto’s son has been at the facility for seven weeks. She said she’s been told that if she doesn’t come to pick him up, it would be considered abandonment.

She said she's afraid of being arrested like a South Carolina mother was last November.

A police report shows a Spartanburg, South Carolina, woman was charged with neglect after refusing to pick up her daughter when a hospital discharged her after a violent incident.

Advocates say that sometimes to get the help needed for children, parents actually have to sign them back over to the Department of Social Services to let the agency find resources for them.

“I refuse to accept that,” Noto said. “Why should I have to give up my son to give him mental health care?”

Therapist Sally Gordon, who has spent the past 30 years working with foster and adopted children, says there aren’t enough providers to treat the most severe cases, and it isn’t easy.

“They started out with all the best intentions, the right reasons to adopt these children. Then there is such a lack of resources to help them,” she said.

Gordon showed Channel 9 how she retrains traumatized children’s brains with neurofeedback.

She said many of her clients improve, but one of the big problems is that because of low reimbursement rates, many providers who offer specialized therapies don't take Medicaid, which most foster and adopted children rely on.

“Do you find they're getting the type of therapy they need while they're in foster care?,” Channel 9 anchor Brittney Johnson asked.

“Not really,” Gordon said.

More than 11,000 children in North Carolina are in foster care.

Advocates say the majority need mental health treatment.

Noto and other parents have told Channel 9 their kids did not receive appropriate treatment when they were in DSS custody.

Some advocates are pushing for statewide Medicaid expansion, which could allow them to raise reimbursement rates to entice more providers to treat the children.

Noto believes if her son had been helped years ago, she wouldn’t be in this tough spot.

“All I want to do is help my kid,” Noto said.

Noto started a support group called ATTACH Families so that parents can help each other.

Channel 9 tried contacting DSS but did not hear back.

Atrium wouldn’t comment on this particular family but said they are seeing more desperate parents leaving children at emergency rooms.

Cardinal Innovations, which handles mental health care for children with Medicaid, emailed a statement, saying in part, “We have a robust and diverse network of providers..."

...in the rare instance that an out of state facility can better serve a family's needs, we will pursue this option."

On Monday, Channel 9 learned that after seven weeks, a spot has been found for Noto’s son at a Rock Hill facility, but his insurance coverage through Medicaid and Cardinal will end on Thursday.

Noto said at this point, he can't go, but she is trying to get answers from DSS and Cardinal to find out why.

We asked Cardinal, but they would not speak to this specific case.

Cox Media Group