9-year old girl hearing voices of the Devil.

[Bob Kelso]

I regularly work with psychiatric patients that suffer from delusions of hallucinations -auditory or otherwise- and usually it's of a religious nature.

I've heard various family and friends of the patients mention prayer -and twice exorcism- as a better solution to psychiatric care and it always infuriates me.

[Jehanne]

I see things nearly everyday in my life which cause me concern.  For instance, several years ago I saw a man, some friends of his, and especially, a little two to three year old toddler, who sere standing a few feet from a large river that was passed flood stage.  The whole situation caused me great concern, but calling the police could have put me in an even worse situation, and would have disrupted my schedule, as I was on the way to an appointment.

My OP, by the way, does not just apply to this little girl, which is why I posted it in the religion -- christian section.  You can google these types of situations; I haven't but I am sure that they are all over the place and are happening all the time.  As others have said, it can become a very dangerous situation, mixing a meme and a mental illness.

By the way, if I hear anything more about this little girl, I'll pass it on the board, absent any personally identifiable information, of course.  Confidentially laws do still apply, even in the situation of child abuse reports, which means that if I do report it, I will probably be obligated to stop talking about it here.  If the opportunity arises, I will suggest to my friend that he consider reporting it.

Don't bother.

Please don't blame me for other peoples' inanities and/or insanities.  I am just "the Messenger", in the most general terms.  Of course, if you don't want to read my posts, there's always the ignore option.

[Jehanne]

I regularly work with psychiatric patients that suffer from delusions of hallucinations -auditory or otherwise- and usually it's of a religious nature.

I've heard various family and friends of the patients mention prayer -and twice exorcism- as a better solution to psychiatric care and it always infuriates me.

You express my sentiments precisely.  This is why all religion needs to be at least neutralized to the point where religious belief is completely impotent.

[thesummerqueen]

oh god forbid you be late to an appointment for getting involved

[Jehanne]

oh god forbid you be late to an appointment for getting involved

The alternative would be a full-time job, and I already have one of those!  And, where I live, the police do not take kindly to being called, unless death or serious injury has occurred.

[Jehanne]

In posting this thread, I did not think that I would be taking some much heat (or, for that matter, any blowback) for having not called "child protective services".  And, so, I decided to look up what the Law says for my US state (Iowa):

http://dhs.iowa.gov/child-abuse/what-is-child-abuse

In Iowa, the agency is called DHS as opposed to CPS, but for those of you who do not want to click the above link, here's the summary off the web page:

• [/url]
  
• [url=http://dhs.iowa.gov/child-abuse/what-is-child-abuse/victims]The victim is a child.
  
• The child is subjected to one or more of the categories of child abuse defined in Iowa Code section 232.68:
  • Physical abuse
    
  • Mental injury
    
  • Sexual abuse
    
  • Child prostitution
    
  • Presence of illegal drugs in a child's body
    
  • Denial of critical care
    
  • Manufacturing or possession of a dangerous substance (defined in Iowa Code 232.2)
    
  • Bestiality in the presence of a child
    
  • Allows access to a registered sex offender
    
  • Allows access to obscene materials
    

And, so, the only category that seems to fit this situation would be "denial of critical care," and for that to be child abuse, the fundie parents would have to be denying their daughter medical and/or psychiatric care, and I have no idea whatsoever if that is the case or not.  And, so, I doubt that DHS is even going to consider my report.  The fact that the girl's parents are fundamentalist Christian loons does not meet the definition of child abuse, not yet at least.

[Joods]

Don't bother.

Please don't blame me for other peoples' inanities and/or insanities.  I am just "the Messenger", in the most general terms.  Of course, if you don't want to read my posts, there's always the ignore option.

I said in a previous post that I was going to say some things I wasn't sorry for saying and here goes. I find it really pathetic that you bothered posting her situation at all if you weren't going to woman up and do something to help her.

Just the messenger? No - sorry. I can't give you a free pass on this. And I will not stay silent so that you can stay comfortable. You had no problem making your OP. You had not one single issue with posting it here - for the world to see. Which, by the way, even if all 9000+ members didn't see it - guests visiting this site still can and not only can they see it, but they can also take screen shots of the page, share it, copy the url and send it out to anyone else they want to see it. So much for being concerned about breaking your friend's confidentiality with this issue.

Here's the irony:
Unless someone you personally know, knows you are a member here and knows the name of that child, I highly doubt anyone is going to link you to that child, should you decide to help her. You have not given out any personal details about who this child is, who her parents are, what their address is or anything. If you can't be bothered to step up and do the right thing to possibly save a life, then shame on you.

As a victim of abuse, I don't know what I find more bothersome - the fact that you are more concerned about losing your friendship with the person who told you, or the fact that you continue to insist that you can't risk getting involved - even after it's been pointed out to you that it can be done anonymously.

Your silence is only helping this child be further abused. To continue that is siding with her abusive parents, which makes you just as guilty. If you were really as concerned as you say you are you'd do the right thing and make the damn phone call instead of pondering all of the "what ifs" and being so worried about yourself, your friend and some stupid appointment.

And, so, the only category that seems to fit this situation would be "denial of critical care," and for that to be child abuse, the fundie parents would have to be denying their daughter medical and/or psychiatric care, and I have no idea whatsoever if that is the case or not.  And, so, I doubt that DHS is even going to consider my report.  The fact that the girl's parents are fundamentalist Christian loons does not meet the definition of child abuse, not yet at least.

bold mine.

I agree that the situation falls under denial of critical care. The child believes the devil is talking to her. Clearly, there's a mental issue going on and her parents are refusing her the care she has a right to receive. If she's being suicidal, not only is there the risk of her harming herself, but others. Suppose she's got a sibling and the "devil" has told her to kill that child? I'd say this absolutely qualifies for some sort of a phone call to the DHS. You won't even bother reporting yet you automatically assume DHS won't consider your report? On what grounds do you know this to be true? They can't do anything if they don't know what's going on, so who's to say they won't help? Try thinking about all of the other people who potentially stand in harm's way if you and your friend's silence continues. What if one of those other people was someone you loved? Would you step up and do something then?

Honestly, after what you've had to say about not wanting to get involved, is it really surprising that you're taking so much heat from this?

[Joods]

• • Denial of critical care
    

And, so, the only category that seems to fit this situation would be "denial of critical care," and for that to be child abuse, the fundie parents would have to be denying their daughter medical and/or psychiatric care, and I have no idea whatsoever if that is the case or not.  And, so, I doubt that DHS is even going to consider my report.  The fact that the girl's parents are fundamentalist Christian loons does not meet the definition of child abuse, not yet at least.

bold mine*

You forgot to mention this handy little tidbit:

A parent or guardian legitimately practicing religious beliefs who does not provide specified medical treatment for a child for that reason alone shall not be considered abusing the child. However, this does not preclude a court from ordering that medical service be provided to the child where the child's health requires it.

emphasis mine

So really, the court could order a mental evaluation be done. Providing they actually have a report to go off of, you know, from someone calling it in.

[emjay]

If everyone assumes that someone else will make the report then it's possible or even probable than no-one will make it! I read about this effect with onlookers of accidents... everyone assumes that someone else has called the emergency services and therefore no one ends up calling them... and the advice to the accident victim to counteract this effect is to point to one of the bystanders and say 'you, help me' to break the deadlock. So you can't rely on assuming that someone else will report it.

[The Grand Nudger]

  The fact that the girl's parents are fundamentalist Christian loons does not meet the definition of child abuse, not yet at least.

You're not thinking like a lawyer........