Are Your Parental Rights at Risk Due to a Mental Illness?

In a child custody dispute (now known as Legal Decision-Making and Parenting Time), the highest priorities are the child’s safety, well-being, and long-term best interests. If you expect a child custody battle during or at any time after your divorce in Arizona, seek the advice and representation of a Phoenix parental rights lawyer immediately.

In a child custody contest, if a parent’s struggle with a mental illness has profoundly affected that person’s ability to parent his or her child adequately and effectively, an Arizona court will take into account the details of that parent’s mental illness diagnosis.

How Widespread is Mental Illness?

Nevertheless, Arizona parents should understand that thousands of people in this state are diagnosed with some form of mental illness every year. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that more than a million adults in Arizona have some type of mental health condition.

In fact, almost everyone has suffered at some point from anxiety and depression. Mental illness is not at all uncommon, and a struggle with your own mental health may not necessarily place your parental rights in legal jeopardy.

How Do Arizona Courts Handle Mental Illness in Child Custody Cases?

In the most extreme cases, an Arizona court may terminate a parent’s parental rights if a mental deficiency, mental illness, or a record of chronic addiction or substance abuse prevents the parent from taking on and fulfilling his or her full parenting duties and responsibilities, which include:

  1. providing financial and emotional support, education, and medical care
  2. protecting the child from risks, hazards, and potential harm
  3. providing the child with essentials including food, clothing, and shelter

Arizona courts have also determined that the diagnosis of a parent’s mental illness – by itself – is insufficient to terminate someone’s parental rights. Instead, the courts consider cases individually to determine the effect of a parent’s mental illness on the parent’s ability to care for the child.

Simple depression or anxiety will probably have no impact whatsoever on your parental rights. However, if a parent’s mental illness impairs that person’s ability to be an effective parent, an Arizona court may determine that terminating that parent’s rights is in the child’s best interests.

What Steps Can You Take to Protect Your Parental Rights?

If you are a parent who is struggling with mental illness in the State of Arizona, what measures can you take to retain your child’s custody and your parental rights? The most important step you can take is to do your best to ensure that your mental illness is being managed effectively.

Attending your therapy sessions and taking your medications as prescribed will indicate to the court that you are constructively and positively managing your mental illness. This makes it far less likely that an Arizona court will remove your child or terminate your parental rights.

What Happens After Your Parental Rights Are Terminated by an Arizona Court?

Unlike losing a battle for your child’s physical custody, the termination of parental rights means that the court entirely severs the legal child-parent relationship. The parent loses forever all rights to visit the child or to make any decisions about the child’s education, healthcare, or religious training.

After your parental rights are terminated by an Arizona court, you are, for all legal and practical purposes, no longer a parent. You will no longer have any legal obligation to support the child financially or to make child support payments to the other parent.

Can Your Parental Rights Be Reinstated After a Mental Illness?

The loss of Custody (Parenting Time) can exacerbate your mental illness and make it even more challenging to regain the custody of your child. When you seek to retain your parental rights or have those rights restored, you will need to be represented by a Phoenix child custody attorney.

However, the courts presume that having both parents involved in a child’s life is usually in a child’s best interests. Thus, for most parents, the Arizona courts will give you an opportunity to manage and recover from a mental illness.

Good coping skills, positive personal relationships, stable employment, and a good Phoenix child custody attorney will help you persuade an Arizona court that your custody rights should be retained.

Can a Parent’s Mental Illness Affect Child Support Payments?

Because Arizona is a no-fault divorce state, either spouse may seek to divorce for “irreconcilable differences” without blaming or faulting the other spouse for the breakdown of the marriage. Thus, a mental illness is not usually a determining factor when filing for divorce in this state.

Nevertheless, a mental illness may still be considered by the court in a divorce proceeding. An untreated mental illness, for example, may be perceived by the court as a risk to a child’s well-being, and this perception may influence the court’s child custody and child support orders.

Additionally, if the treatment for a mental illness suffered by either partner has placed a significant financial burden on a divorcing couple, that burden may have an influence on an Arizona divorce court’s decisions regarding child support and/or spousal support payments.

You May Need an Attorney to Protect Your Parental Rights

If you are a parent in Arizona who is struggling with a mental illness and fighting the potential termination of your parental rights, you must be represented and advised by an experienced Phoenix parental rights lawyer who will advocate effectively and aggressively on your behalf.

Let the award-winning legal team at Arizona Family Law Attorneys advise you and take the appropriate legal steps to protect your parental rights. We serve clients throughout the Tempe and Phoenix areas, and we handle divorces, custody disputes, paternity cases, adoptions, and all other matters of family law. We know how to resolve the most complicated family law disputes.

To learn more about your rights as a parent who is struggling with mental illness, arrange today for a consultation with Arizona Family Law Attorneys by calling our offices at 480-448-0608. We offer affordable rates, and we make appointment hours flexible for your convenience.