EVIDENCE OF MOTHER’S MENTAL ILLNESS AND HER FAILURE TO PROPERLY TREAT IT WAS SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT A FINDING OF NEGLECT, EVEN IN THE ABSENCE OF PROOF OF A SPECIFIC INSTANCE OF CHILD NEGLECT (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Family Court, determined the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) presented sufficient proof to support a finding of neglect based upon mother’s mental illness (schizophrenia) which mother failed to properly treat. Evidence of an actual instance of child neglect is not necessary:

“Even though evidence of a parent’s mental illness, alone, is insufficient to support a finding of neglect of a child, such evidence may be part of a neglect determination when the proof further demonstrates that the parent’s condition creates an imminent risk of physical, mental, or emotional harm to the child” … . “Indeed, even when a child has not been actually impaired, a finding of neglect is appropriate to prevent imminent impairment, which is an independent and separate ground on which a neglect finding may be based” … . In such cases, the court is not required to wait until a child has already been harmed before it enters a neglect finding … . Proof of a parent’s “ongoing mental illness and the failure to follow through with aftercare medication is a sufficient basis for a finding of neglect where such failure results in a parent’s inability to care for [his or] her child in the foreseeable future” … . Matter of Khaleef M. S.-P. (Khaleeda M. S.), 2022 NY Slip Op 02124, Second Dept 3-30-22

Practice Point: Here the Second Department determined proof of mother’s mental illness and her failure to properly treat it was sufficient to support a finding of child neglect, even the absence of a specific instance of child neglect.