{"id":10122,"date":"2016-09-21T13:31:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/?p=10122"},"modified":"2019-01-21T23:46:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T06:46:48","slug":"mental-illness-and-divorce-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/mental-illness-and-divorce-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Illness and Divorce in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mental Illness and Divorce in California<\/h2>\n

The case scenario described below isn\u2019t a rare case, unfortunately it does happen in a marriage:<\/p>\n

My wife who was hospitalized and treated for schizophrenia before the conception of our child is now falsely accusing me of physically abusing our merely 2 years old daughter.\u00a0 Her accusation has put me under a TRO and given me zero custody for a few months. I have had 50% since the Legal Separation was filed. I am terribly afraid of what can happen to my child. In the meantime, she has gotten into a couple of car accidents and traffic violation tickets since our separation.\u00a0 She is mentally ill and doesn\u2019t know what she is doing.\u00a0 She even forgot our daughter in the car while going into the store on multiple occasions.\u00a0 I\u2019m highly concerned about our child\u2019s safety. \u00a0I\u2019m desperate in need of help to get a full custody of my daughter.\u00a0 What\u2019s the mental health\u2019s impact on custody?<\/p>\n

Mental Health\u2019s Impact on Custody<\/h2>\n

California judges determine child custody in accordance with each child\u2019s best interests. A child\u2019s safety is the court\u2019s utmost concern in custody decisions. If parents have mental health conditions that threaten a child\u2019s safety and wellbeing, the court must consider those mental illnesses when deciding custody. Many parents are able to manage their mental illnesses without it affecting their parenting abilities. Other parents suffer from mental illnesses that make them prone to violence or child neglect. If a mentally ill parent can\u2019t parent appropriately, the court is likely to grant custody to the other parent, or a third party.<\/p>\n

Typically, when a child is removed from a parent\u2019s home due to issues related to the parent\u2019s mental illness, the State Department of Social Services will provide family reunification services. The Department won\u2019t provide those services in cases where the parent is too mentally ill to benefit or if the parent is confined to an institution for treatment.<\/p>\n

In some cases, a judge may declare a parent developmentally disabled or mentally ill. If the Director of State Hospitals or Director of Developmental Services, or similar person, certifies that the parent is incapable of supporting or controlling a child properly, the state can petition the court to terminate the parent\u2019s parental rights. Two mental health experts must testify that they expect the parent\u2019s disability to continue indefinitely before a judge will terminate parental rights.<\/p>\n

Alcohol and drug abuse also affect custody decisions. When one parent abuses alcohol or drugs, a court may be more likely to grant child custody to the other parent, especially if the use of alcohol or drugs interferes with the parent\u2019s ability to raise the child appropriately. \u00a0A parent\u2019s regular but moderate use of alcohol won\u2019t affect the judge\u2019s custody determination unless there are ill effects for the child.<\/p>\n

If a parent abuses alcohol or drugs to the point that it significantly threatens a child\u2019s safety, a court can terminate that parent\u2019s parental rights. For example, if a child was seriously injured due to a parent driving while intoxicated, a judge can take away that parent\u2019s custodial rights permanently. Also, if a parent suffers from a mental disability due to chronic drug use, which makes the parent unfit to care for a child, the court may terminate parental rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you have additional questions regarding mental health and divorce, please contact Attorney Joanne Zhou at The Zhou Law Group in San Jose.<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental Illness and Divorce in California The case scenario described below isn\u2019t a rare case, unfortunately it does happen in a marriage: My wife who was hospitalized and treated for schizophrenia before the conception of our child is now falsely accusing me of physically abusing our merely 2 years old daughter.\u00a0 Her accusation has put…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}