 |
|
5/22/2025
|
Op-Ed: All smoke and mirrors with no substance - Rhode Island’s children deserve better!
|
By Rep. Julie A. Casimiro
When the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) released its May 2025 report detailing fatal and near-fatal incidents involving children in state care, Rhode Islanders were rightfully horrified. The report showed that too many of our most vulnerable children fell through the cracks - ignored, unsupported and left without the behavioral healthcare they urgently needed.
In response, both the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals (BHDDH) and the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) appeared before House Oversight on May 21 to explain what they are doing to support our young people with behavioral health care needs. It was the worst meeting I have participated in during my nine years in the General Assembly. It was heartbreaking and emotionally draining to listen to all 30 cases in front of us. Kids are dying, and we (state government) are failing them EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Normally, all eyes would go to DCYF (as they should), but these were all substance abuse cases, and substance abuse is supposed to be led by BHDDH. Don’t get me wrong, DCYF and OCA do have a lot to accomplish together because kids are dying!
What we got from BHDDH was simply a very pretty PowerPoint Presentation. It was not accountability. It read like a public relations campaign and not a substantive response to a deadly crisis. They talked about “enhancing,” “coordinating” and “partnering.” BHDDH emphasized millions of dollars in “investments.” Upon closer look, we found that most of this funding supports school-based prevention programs and media messaging – not treatment. Not stabilization. Not the lifesaving care that kids in crisis need.
There was no clear data on how many children were receiving treatment for substance abuse disorder. No information on waitlists, access timelines or clinical outcomes. Despite acknowledging the critical need to expand adolescent residential services, BHDDH offered only vague promises about what may happen by the end of the year. All while kids continue to die.
Even more concerning is the continued deflection of responsibility. BHDDH repeatedly pointed to DCYF as the agency serving youth mental health, while also quietly maintaining control over funding for substance use treatment. Meanwhile, coordination between the two agencies remains murky at best. Where is the joint accountability plan? Where is the urgency while our children die needlessly?
One thing is abundantly clear - our system is failing. Families in crisis don’t need pretty flyers, gas station, TV or social media ads. They need beds, clinicians and a care system that doesn’t require a tragedy to trigger a response.
We need a full and transparent accounting of how behavioral health dollars are being spent, which providers are delivering successful care, real-time data and shared responsibility across agencies. And perhaps most importantly, the political will to fund treatment, not just prevention.
Rhode Island’s vulnerable and at-risk children deserve more than smoke and mirrors. They deserve a behavioral health care system that puts their needs, and not bureaucracy, first before more tragedy strikes our state.
Julie A. Casimiro, a Democrat, represents District 31 in North Kingstown and Exeter. She is the chairwoman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Children and Families.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
|
|