HB335

If passed, this law would be financially and psychologically damaging to children and families.

The Office of the Child Advocate has concerns about HB335 requiring courts to order a minor and their family have psychological evaluations and, if necessary, counseling, where parental rights and responsibilities are contested in a family court matter, as written, including: * "Rejection" or "withholding" could be indicators of physical or sexual abuse, or psychological maltreatment, and should not be the basis to subject a child to a potentially inappropriate or traumatic "evaluation." Children involved in high-conflict parenting cases are often also involved in the child protection system. * Such an "evaluation" may not be appropriate or therapeutic for the child, as it could cause additional trauma by involving the child in divorce proceedings, and may not be beneficial or in the Best interest of the child. Evaluations should not be requested or triggered due to a parent feeling wronged in a parenting proceeding. * Much of the language of this bill is incredibly concerning, such as: " narcissistic-borderline-dark personality pathology," " shared/induced persecutory delusion," and "factitious attachment pathology," to name a few. * There is always some concern with children having diagnoses assigned to them that could impact quality of care later in life, especially the ones named in the bill, which do not align with recognized DSM diagnoses. This bill does not appear to be for the advancement of the best interest of children, which is the bellwether for 461-A determinations, but rather to advance the interests of one parent, based on questionable "science." For all of these reasons, the OCA would recommend the committee ITL this bill.

Why do we need a law that mandates a whole entire family submit to psychiatric services when a family law judge could just order that anyway? What happens when people don’t have Medicaid anymore, or even when they have the best insurance but they can’t get into a therapist in New Hampshire because we’ve had mental health crisis levels of provider shortages in this state for decades?