Nervous breakdown, danger to kids?

A family member has been hospitalized for what their parents are calling a nervous breakdown. I don't know actual diagnosis.(known to drink and previously took painkillers) This person initiated a divorce several months ago and has been very uncooperative re: developing parental plan for young child and purposely done things to hurt/aggravate spouse using child. The spouse has physical custody of child, but until now has been liberal with this person seeing child everyday if wanted to see child.

When this person is released from treatment facility, what should custodial parent do? Concerned about safety of child. What written reassurance should court ask for regarding parent's mental status and child's safety? Should they wait 90 days after release before unsupervised visitation allowed? What should we be worried about re: child welfare? Don't know what questions to even ask.

Thanks for any help!

Welcome to PC Worried Aunt. Its good the parent is in a treatment facility. Its best to ask the people handling the legal part of the child custody - most likely it will be supervised visits at 1st. I do hope the custodial parent will let this parent see the children because this would hinder the parents recovery and stress the children further. Even though this parent had a nervous breakdown and addiction problems, they can still be a parent as long as the court agrees. Its very sad when we hear about children being taken away indefinitely, just because of the stigma of mental illness. I hope everyone will show compassion during this difficult time.

Hi, Worried aunt, welcome to PsychCentral (PC).

What a wonderful aunt you are to be concerned. I don't know that one can know how someone is going to feel and/or act in the future. There isn't really any such diagnosis as "nervous breakdown" that is just like saying someone has "cold or flu" which can be one of many illnesses.

I do not think the family member will be worse when they leave the hospital, I would wait and see to what extent they wish to see the child and how adults feel being with them. Unless you believe they have harmed the child before, there should not be any reason why they would start now and if, when they are out of the hospital they are not drugged so their ability to care for the child is compromised, there really should not be a problem?

See how you feel interacting with the person; it is possible that the child is not going to be the first thing on their mind, what with having been ill and away for treatment? I would suspect the custodial parent could talk to the person's doctors and express any concerns?

the answers to these question may be hard to find online. the reason being is because each location has their own standards, requirements for things like family court, divorces, custody, visitation, and even when one or both spouses have illnesses. the parents lawyers will be telling the parents what the court process is and what is needed for each side to disclose to the court, paperwork, evaluations and all that.

unless you are one of the parents you probably wont be included in this process *unless* the parents and law guardian for the children think its best to include you. here in the USA a childs rights to privacy is protected during things like this by law guardians and the childrens custodial parent.

my suggestion talk with the parents maybe they will fill you in on what their lawyers are telling them needs to be done and how you can help. if you are a parent in this case talk with your lawyer they will answer these questions as they stand in your location.

I want to thank each of you for taking the time to reply, I appreciate hearing various points of view and suggestions. I agree that don't want keep a child away from a parent if at all possible. Just trying to figure out what advise to give custodial parent if they ask, which they usually do. Hope the lawyers have experience with this and give good recommendations. This is out of my depth of experience. Guess it is a wait and see situation when the person gets out of treatment center. Thank you all.