Child Protective Service Disparities and Serious Mental Illnesses: Results From a National Survey.

OBJECTIVE

Involvement with child protective services (CPS) can have detrimental effects on children and parents alike. This study provided updated information about the prevalence of parenting among individuals with a serious mental illness and established the first contemporaneous and comparative national prevalence estimates of CPS involvement for parents with and without a serious mental illness.

METHODS

Data came from the Truven Health Analytics PULSE national survey of 42,761 adults conducted between September 2014 and December 2015. Survey questions assessed the presence of a serious mental illness, parenting status, contact with CPS, and types of CPS involvement.

RESULTS

Prevalence of parenthood was similar between individuals with (69%) and without (71%) a serious mental illness. Parents with a serious mental illness were approximately eight times more likely to have CPS contact and 26 times more likely to have a change in living arrangements compared with parents without a serious mental illness. Even when the analysis was limited to parents who had CPS contact, parents with a serious mental illness were at greater risk of custody loss compared with parents without mental illness.

CONCLUSIONS

These results further heighten the need to attend to parenting among individuals with a serious mental illness and better understand the factors associated with CPS involvement to reduce the identified disparities between parents with and without a mental illness. Efforts to reduce CPS involvement would likely reduce stress and enhance recovery and mental health for parents and their children.