16-year-old girl suffering from bipolar disorder assigned to a wilderness camp

[Anonymous]

Judge: Bucks official interfered

By Scott Kraus

The Morning Call

July 17, 2008

Fearing for her daughter's safety, the mother of a 16-year-old girl suffering from bipolar disorder who was assigned to a wilderness boot camp in May called Bucks County Commissioner Diane Marseglia for help.

Marseglia, a licensed clinical social worker who lost her daughter Becky to suicide in 2005, contacted county Human Services Director Joe Funk and the office of the Guardian Ad Litem, which represents at-risk youth and abused children.

She said she told officials in both offices she thought the wilderness camp could be a dangerous placement and expressed her concerns to the senior Guardian Ad Litem attorney that her office hadn't met with the girl for months.

That crossed the line by intruding on a process that needs to be conducted solely on the record, in court, Bucks County President Judge David Heckler said Wednesday.

''It's inappropriate for a commissioner to try to interfere with an officer of the court and their recommendations that are made in the best interests of a child,'' said Judge Robert J. Mellon, who presided over the case.

To prevent future interference, Heckler called publicly for court oversight of the Guardian Ad Litem, a six-person department with a $500,000 annual budget that falls under county Planning Commission Director Lynn Bush, who reports to the commissioners.

''It's got to be transparent, and this was anything but,'' Heckler said, suggesting in a letter to Republican Commissioners Chairman Jim Cawley that Marseglia may have urged discipline of caseworkers.

Marseglia, a Democrat, said she made inquiries into the case at the request of the girl's mother, who was concerned about her daughter's welfare. She said she did nothing to pressure anyone in the Guardian Ad Litem's office or the county's Department of Children and Youth, or call for disciplinary action.

''I had knowledge and evidence this child's life was at imminent risk,'' said Marseglia, who attributed Heckler's public call for the department to be reassigned to partisan politics.

The mother, whose name is being withheld to protect her daughter's identity, said she turned to Marseglia for counsel after her daughter, a sexual abuse victim, struggled while in treatment at KidsPeace in Lehigh County and ran away from a treatment facility in Delaware County.

She called Marseglia after Mellon ruled May 28, with the support of the County Department of Children and Youth Services and the girl's Guardian Ad Litem attorney, that her daughter should be sent to the ACT wilderness camp in Wind Gap, operated by Youth Services Agency of Bucks County.

The goal was ''to keep the child away from danger,'' Mellon said.

The mother had anticipated outpatient day-treatment, an option recommended by a psychiatrist. She said she panicked at the idea of sending her daughter, who had attempted suicide three times, to a wilderness camp.

''I believe Diane was trying to help my daughter and now she is being called to the carpet for something that is so good,'' she said.

Marseglia said wilderness camps are not appropriate for teens with mental illness, especially those with previous thoughts of suicide, because they offer little to nothing in the area of mental health treatment.

The camp's Web site says it taps into ''beautiful outdoor environments for both therapeutic and educational purposes. Through adventure we promote immediate feelings of well being, safety, competency and positive emotional states -- this is therapy.''

After hearing from Marseglia, Funk said he talked with Lynne Rainey, director of the Department of Children and Youth Services and they decided it would be best to review the girl's 30-day placement in ACT and also complete a psychological evaluation.

The wilderness camp placement was not altered, although Mellon's order was changed by Brad Jackman, the solicitor for the Department of Children and Youth, to add a requirement that the court reconvene in two weeks to review the placement, a change noticed after the fact by the judge.

Funk said he meant revisit the girl's placement based on her success there and the psychological assessment, and Jackman probably misinterpreted it as a formal legal review.

Meanwhile, senior Guardian Ad Litem attorney Lisa Horne appointed a new attorney to represent the girl. The girl's mother said Horne did so at her request after agreeing the previous attorney had not provided adequate representation.

Mellon said the change in the guardian, an extremely rare occurrence, is what alerted him to Marseglia's involvement. In court June 12, the girl's initial guardian cited ''irreconcilable attorney-client differences,'' and said she did not have a relationship with the girl at the time.

Horne and Jackman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Marseglia said she thinks the episode was blown out of proportion by Heckler and others in county government, for political reasons, to make her look bad.

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