Julie linked this very distressing story about mental illness and children.

I’m the mom of an adopted child who’s been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder; she’s been residing in a psychiatric hospital for nearly four years now. And I live in Georgia where this particular expose took place. She's pictured on the right.

I’m going to be a tad oppositional at this point. We all want to blame someone when our mentally ill children do not improve. Obviously this article was about the deaths that had occurred, possibly negligent, deeply distressing to the families certainly.

Adopting children from the system can often present a tremendous amount of challenges. In my case, with this particular daughter, it is even more daunting to know that her birth mother is schizophrenic.

Should that have precluded my adoption of her? Should I have said no, and waited for another group? Nope, she was very cute, very young (age 5) back then and came with three brothers then 4, 7, and 12. I’d read their detailed case history, I knew that the two oldest boys were in special education classes, I knew they came from an horrific background with brutal abuse inflicted upon them by a very disturbed birth mother.

I realized instantly, during that initial pre-placement visit in Texas that this was one very difficult, emotionally damaged group of children from a chaotic background. Indeed, the oldest one would be the easiest to raise, he tested out of special ed within a few years and grew up to now serve in the Navy, plus he’s married man, as normal and as handsome as they come.

But that night in Texas, I sat up all night wondering if I could handle these kids, I had a very long talk the next day with their caseworker, and with the Guardian-Ad-Litem. I just wasn’t sure, this was my first case of insecurity in adoption and it was my last as well.

Already emotionally attached to the kids, I couldn’t turn my back then. Two days later they flew to Georgia, and my new daughter, promptly went to time-out 23 times before bedtime. That should have been my first clue.

For a couple of years she was mainly a severely challenged behavioral problem, but she emotionally disintegrated seriously while I sought all sorts of outside help and resources for her.

Eventually everything failed, she became increasingly a danger to our family, and even more so to herself. Now she’s 17 and no better. But I love her and I know she's trying to respond to therapy.

The bottom line is that mental illness isn’t “curable” and we parents resent that fact immensely, and often take our frustration out on the professionals who ‘don’t do their job and cure our kid.’

In reality, we need to be taught, by the professionals, how to help our children manage the illness, to continue to seek treatment, and to take medications if necessary. This is so not how I thought my child would end up, yet it is our stark reality, and I’m committed to helping her throughout what may be a difficult lifetime.