Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project
The Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project provides legal representation and assistance to low income parents diagnosed with a mental illness who are seeking to access or regain custody of their children. Parents diagnosed with mental illness are at high risk of losing custody of and/or all contact with their children in the family courts, particularly if they are without legal representation.
In 1999, the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project (CFLSP) was established to provide assistance to this vulnerable and stigmatized population, and to focus on the various legal needs of parents living with mental illness. The CFLSP is a partnership between MHLAC and the metro-west clubhouse, Employment Options, Inc. The Project is supported and funded by the Department of Mental Health (DMH), and theMassachusetts Bar Foundation (MBF).
What led to the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project
History of the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project
The CFLSP provides effective legal representation and assistance in the following ways:
Legal consultation: CFLSP attorneys meet with parents at their local Clubhouse (Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition - MCC) to provide parents (who may also be club members) with legal information, advice, guidance and referrals in family law and child welfare matters.
Legal Representation: CFLSP attorneys represent parents in Probate and Family Court proceedings involving custody and visitation disputes, such as: divorce or post-divorce modification cases where child custody and/or visitation is at issue, custody/visitation cases between unmarried parents, guardianship of a minor cases, and in some limited Department of Children and Families (DCF) involved matters.
Training and Education: CFLSP attorneys provide training in the area of family law as it pertains to parents with mental illness, for Clubhouse members and staff, as well as service providers, clinicians, other attorneys, and judges in both the Commonwealth and other states.
Consultation Services: CFLSP attorneys provide consultation to other attorneys on mental health issues and service coordination for parents recovering from mental illness.
Outreach: CFLSP attorneys maintain contact with a variety of Massachusetts clubhouses (MCC) and hold presentation and intake days for staff and members to learn more about the services offered, and for interested members to obtain assistance from the Project.
What led to the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project
Parents diagnosed with mental illness are at high risk of losing custody of and/or all contact with their children due to assumptions of unfit parenting. These assumptions grounded in stereotype, are unfounded. The ability of a person with mental illness to be a successful parent has less to do with diagnosis and more to do with available parenting resources and support. The vast majority of children who have parents with mental illness do relatively well with adequate family support.
Many parents with mental illness lose access to their children without the benefit of counsel or judicial process. Lacking counsel, and under pressure from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and/or other persons, parents with mental illness often relinquish significant parental rights. Clubhouse (linked to clubhouse coalition site) members have identified loss of contact with children as the primary barrier to successful rehabilitation as well as a significant source of distress for the entire family. Legal representation for these parents has not typically been provided by traditional legal services agencies or pro bono attorneys due to lack of resources and the difficult nature of these cases. For these reasons, MHLAC initiated the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project (CFLSP).
History of the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project
The CFLSP was established in 1999 as a two-year project funded by the Massachusetts Bar Foundation (MBF) and Equal Justice Works, formerly known as the National Association of Public Interest Law (NAPIL). The initial grant brought a family law practitioner with solid legal services experience representing low income clients to join the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) and Employment Options, Inc. as the full-time project attorney.
For the past ten (10) years, the Project attorney, working with MHLAC legal advocates and EOI clinical staff, has provided effective legal representation to low income parents with mental illness in family law and some child welfare matters. Most recently, the Project added a new staff attorney to expand outreach and services throughout the Greater Boston Area. The CFLSP has demonstrated that the combination of experienced mental health lawyers and rehabilitation programs with a focus on parenting needs can have a positive impact on family preservation for some of the most vulnerable children and stigmatized parents in the state. The Project is now funded through the Department of Mental Health, and the Massachusetts Bar Foundation (MBF). This funding ensures the Project’s continual assistance to parents with mental illness in gaining or maintaining custody, or establishing or increasing contact with their children.
Client Story
Ms. Z. came to CFLSP in the spring as a member of a nearby clubhouse. She had lost custody of her two children a few years before when she and her children were living in a shelter for battered women. Ms. Z. had gone to the shelter during a manic episode as a result of her untreated bipolar disorder and her husband did not know where she had gone. DCF became involved and the children were returned to their father through an order of the Probate and Family Court. Ms. Z. was psychiatrically hospitalized for over one year, during which time she received treatment, worked at the hospital and saw her children on weekends.
A CFLSP attorney took Ms. Z.’s case as a Complaint for Separate Support. Although Ms. Z. was doing well with her treatment and had a part-time job, she lived in a home for people recovering from mental illness which did not allow for overnight visitation with her children. The attorney filed a Complaint for Separate Support requesting a reasonable amount of support for Ms. Z. from her husband, a set visitation schedule with the children, and shared legal custody.
The attorney worked with Ms. Z. to identify other services to ensure that she would remain treatment compliant. Ms. Z. was enthusiastic and grateful for the Project’s focus on parents like herself and she worked with the staff attorney to stay focused on the reality of her situation while remaining motivated to continue her treatment in the hopes of increasing her contact and parenting time with her children. As opposed to previous unsuccessful attempts to utilize the court system, this time Ms. Z. felt empowered by the fact that she had secured an attorney with a focus on parents with mental illness in situations like her own.
The matter went to court in the fall and the Project attorney assisted Ms. Z. in obtaining a judgment by agreement for increased parenting time with her children, as well as shared legal custody with their father. While before Ms. Z. had been seeing her children once a week and her visitation required her to stay at home with her children under supervision, now she is allowed to see them often, unsupervised, and she can take them to after school and weekend activities, such as camp, baseball practice, and ballet. Ms. Z. has continued her therapy and is medication compliant. She still works part-time and is saving to get her own apartment so that one day she can get an order that allows for overnight visitation. With the assistance of the CFLSP, Ms. Z. has been able to restore relationships with her children to the benefit of everyone in the family.