For the last year, Sondra Sykes, 44, worked hard to prove she was a good mother who deserved to get her four youngest children back from foster care. She had several strikes against her: no job, a criminal record and, most worrisome for social workers handling her case, she was mentally ill.
Los Angeles County has seen foster care rolls shrink in recent years as more children have been adopted or reunited with their parents. Among the remaining cases, some of the most challenging involve mentally ill parents. Nearly a fifth of the 4,468 children removed from their homes by L.A. County social workers last year had a parent who was mentally ill or impaired, according to county records.
Last month, social workers faced a worst-case scenario when a mother with a history of mental health problems decapitated her 4-year-old son in Highland Park and then killed herself.
Social and mental health workers had investigated Yolanda Tijerina, 43, nine months earlier after the principal at her son's preschool reported her erratic behavior. Lars Sanchez was left in his mother's care after investigators closed the case in a matter of days, deciding the home was stabilized and Lars was at "low" risk. County leaders have since called for increased monitoring of mentally ill parents.
But county social workers who respond to reports of abuse and neglect caution that while they ask about a parent's mental stability, such problems alone are not grounds to remove a child or force a parent to seek help.
"If they don't want treatment when we knock on their door, and their mental health issues are not serious enough that it puts the children at risk, we have to walk away," said Dr. Charles Sophy, medical director with the Department of Children and Family Services.
Local social service agencies have begun to work more closely with mental health officials to reunite families separated because of a parent's mental illness. Of the 7,346 foster children the county attempted to return to their families last year, about 44% had parents with mental health issues, county records show.
When mentally ill parents are stable and in treatment, Sophy believes it is best for children to be cared for by them. "Children belong with their families," he said. "It's a longing they will have if it's not dealt with."
Sykes is one of more than 200 women who have sought help through the Women's Reintegration Program, created last year after studies showed mentally ill female inmates at the county jail had been incarcerated an average of eight times.
