Karen Authier, director of Nebraska Children's Center, a foster care agency, agreed there is a lack of mental health services for parents. "What this law has brought to the forefront is that there are families who are desperate enough that they want to give up their parenting role. The state needs to address that," she said. "They've opened Pandora's box."
She said that most of the older children who have been abandoned have had serious behavior problems.
Their reactions to abandonment "can range from anything from anger to guilt to sadness," she said. "The important thing is to talk them through those feelings and help prepare them from whatever the next steps are going to be."
Landry denied that there were not enough services, saying that none of the parents who abandoned their children did so because they were unable to pay for services.
He said the safe haven law should be changed. "It needs to get back to the original intent of the safe haven law," he said. "And that is a protection device for infants who are in immediate danger of being harmed."
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