Editorial: A child’s mental illness

It’s hard enough to fathom the parental angst that comes with a child’s descent into mental illness, a distress only compounded if crucial help also vanishes.

That’s why much empathy goes to Soleil “Kela” Feinberg, now 21, and her parents, who have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the state for failing to provide necessary mental health services for their daughter. They claim the state cut off prescribed services after Feinberg turned 18 even though federal law requires continued services until age 21.

When diagnosed with mental illness at 14, Feinberg started getting treatment via the state Department of Health’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD). A few years later, upon returning from a mainland facility where she had been treated, Feinberg needed prescribed intensive mental health services — but instead, the lawsuit alleges, the family was told she was no longer eligible for treatment from CAMHD because she had aged out. And, the suit claims, promised mental health services via another program never materialized.

Sadly — however the suit is resolved — Feinberg has deteriorated: she is now in Kaneohe’s Hawaii State Hospital indefinitely, unfit to stand trial for allegedly assaulting workers at Maui Memorial Hospital’s mental-health unit in 2018.

Still, Feinberg’s lawsuit is important, since it should shed needed light on the state’s handling of kids at risk of mental or behavorial downward spiral. Serious issues of access to, and availability of, vital treatment are raised in the new report, “Young Minds at Risk,” by the nonprofit Lawyers for Equal Justice, who also represents the Feinbergs. Without intervening treatment to stave off deterioration, troubled young minds will turn into troubled adult minds — and that’s simply not good for anyone.