The 16-year-old girl who hanged herself Monday in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center was a tragic reminder of the Las Vegas Valley's lack of mental health services for children, officials said Wednesday.
Brittany Kish's suicide was the first at the juvenile detention center in 29 years. She was brought in for a violation of her parole around 12:30 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 4:15 p.m.
The girl had previously spent time at the state reformatory in Caliente, officials said, but her crimes were not disclosed. By state law, juvenile criminal records are confidential.
"The tragedy the other day really hit home (regarding) the lack of resources in our community," Juvenile Justice Services Director Kirby Burgess said on Wednesday. Burgess said his department is reviewing all its policies and procedures to try to prevent such an incident from happening again.
Burgess was addressing a meeting of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which tries to keep children out of the detention center by directing them to services or returning them to their homes. The idea is to avoid traumatizing children and to use government resources more effectively.
But when the services juveniles need are for mental health, too often they're just not available, and the youths are simply warehoused in the detention center, officials say.
"Seventy percent of all the kids we're dealing with (in the juvenile justice system) have serious emotional issues or they're mentally ill," Juvenile Court Judge William Voy told the meeting.
The investigation into the suicide has not yet determined what issues the girl faced, he noted. "But we need to determine the way we deal with kids with emotional issues or mental illness."
As the Legislature considers a proposed budget from Gov. Kenny Guinn that would essentially double the mental health services available to adults, including $100 million in new spending, children's advocates say youths are getting short shrift.
Since the community lacks funding and facilities for the young and mentally ill, they must be kept in the detention center if they might hurt themselves or others. But unlike the adult jail, which has hundreds of beds for psychiatric care, "we do not have the facilities to handle people with mental illness in the juvenile detention center," Voy said.
"For juveniles, the resources are exactly the same as for those who do not have (mental or emotional) problems."
Voy told the meeting that the juvenile detention center ought to have a mental health technician in-house around the clock. In addition, he said, there ought to be more inpatient psychiatric beds in the community; detention center staff ought to be trained to deal with mental illness; and greater consideration ought to be given to psychiatric treatment as juveniles navigate the justice system.
The Juvenile Justice Services Department's budget currently includes $1 million for professional services, including inpatient and outpatient therapy and psychiatric evaluations but also drug and alcohol counseling, group homes and other needs.
The department is asking the county for an additional $3 million for a total of $4 million in the next budget. Officials such as Voy point out that they have saved the county millions by reducing the population of the formerly overcrowded detention facility.
Assistant County Manager Catherine Cortez Masto said the county is "supportive" of the juvenile justice system's needs and hopes to increase its funding, if not by the full amount.
But county officials also noted that mental health is the responsibility of the state, which runs the Desert Willow Treatment Center for children next door to the adult inpatient psychiatric hospital.
Many foster children also are in need of unavailable mental health services, said Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the county Department of Family Services.
"We do not have the availability of services or providers to meet the needs of these children," she said. "We don't want to fit kids into open spaces -- we want to get kids' needs met. Many of us see kids with mental health issues and don't have the services to give them."
Often, children in foster care have suffered traumatic early life experiences that have left them emotionally scarred, Klein-Rothschild said. Left untreated, their problems can lead to bouncing between foster homes, long-term emotional disturbance, and often juvenile delinquency.
Youths' mental problems can be difficult to diagnose and treat, said Cheryl Wright, a senior child and family therapist with the juvenile justice department.
They may exhibit different symptoms than an adult would -- for example, in adults, depression usually means spending all day in bed, isolated and crying. But children with depression often act angry and agitated; they throw tantrums.
In addition, teenagers' natural emotional volatility may or may not mask something more serious. "Adolescence is such a trying time," Wright said. "What's within the spectrum of teenage drama, and what falls under 'This kid needs mental health treatment?' "
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