Josh Kovner at The Hartford Courant reports on a Catch-22 in Connecticut law. Some parents are going to emergency rooms to abandon children with autism and other developmental disabilities. The Department of Developmental Services consider such children "safe" because they are receiving care in a hospital, so they do not qualify for emergency placement. But the hospitals cannot safely discharge them or provide them with the services that they nee
The abandonments “break your heart — because as a mother, you’d cut off an arm to not have to do that, right?’’ said Leslie Simoes of West Hartford, a mother and co-director of Autism Services and Resource Center in Wallingford
“Well, it shows how the system has fractured. We have seen more of these abandonments in the last few years, but I’m surprised there aren’t a lot more, because there easily could be. Families who have been denied services are pushing beyond the edge, to bankruptcy, divorce or even homelessness,” to continue to care for a son or daughter with developmental disabilities.
