Testifying in Sacramento against AB 665

The bill that will give counselors authority to send minors to residential facilities

I was asked by Erin Friday of Our Duty to testify in with her in Sacramento against AB665 on Tuesday, March 28th. This bill will extend California state mental health services for minors age 12 and up to residential treatment without parental consent. As an advocate for parental rights and family involvement in mental health treatment, I am adamantly against this bill.

The proponents of the bill shared the mental health statistics we are all aware of. They discussed the rising mental health issues in our youth. The woman promoting the bill praised SB 543, the law passed in 2010, which gave California minors the ability to seek outpatient mental health services without parental involvement or permission. She feels it’s best to extend this law to residential services. She believes this will increase access and be helpful to suffering youth.

A high school senior, a first generation immigrant in favor of SB665, also testified and stated, “We often feel guilty about asking our parents or guardians to be involved in our mental health treatment and fear we were putting an unnecessary burden on them.”

Erin Friday noted that if the previous bill that allowed children ages 12 and up to access mental health care without parental consent in 2010 was effective, then we wouldn’t currently have such a rise in mental health problems, yet the crisis continues to escalate. She and I both compared this bill to “government sanctioned kidnapping”. We also both brought up the fact that this is clearly another avenue for the state to carry out their transgender agenda because parents who do not affirm their child’s chosen gender are often demonized by counselors.

In my experience, working with youth in a school setting without parental involvement was ineffective. It was when the parents gave input, shared their point of view and communicated with their teen, the real healing began. In fact, I have a lot of experience with first generation immigrants who expressed the exact same fear this girl did in her testimony. In every case, the teen’s fears were unfounded. When the teen and parents were able to be honest with each other, then the family was able to provide the support the child needed. Immigrant families sacrifice so much and the child is often afraid of being a “failure” when they don’t feel happy, but the pressure is usually placed by the child themselves and as a result, mental health problems tend to increase. When the family is involved and there is open communication, there is a much higher treatment success rate.

I also know first-hand how destructive group homes and residential services are. They are a last resort. If a child needs residential treatment, a parent should be involved both for the sake of treatment and to make the best placement choice. To think this could be happening without parents is difficult to imagine.

Assembly member Bill Essayli stated that he has constitutional concerns about AB 665 and he stated “Children are being empowered to make adult decisions and parents are being pushed to the side and treated as spectators to their kids…”

This was my testimony:

My name is Pamela Garfield-Jaeger.  I am a California-state licensed clinical social worker who trained at New York University. I was a practicing school counselor and supervisor for 10 years in addition to working at multiple residential facilities.

AB 665 is harmful to minors. School counselors are being trained to keep secrets from parents and take on an anti-therapeutic, activist role. Instead of working with families, counselors are dividing families, deliberately turning children against loving parents. Separating children from parents is one of the most traumatic things you can do to a child and should only be done as a last resort. The job of a therapist is to repair the family unit, not destroy it.  

It is apparent that one result of this bill will be the removal of trans-identified children from the family home. In the dystopian nightmare we are in, if a parent doesn’t use the child's chosen pronoun or name, they are labeled dangerous. This is absurd and all based on the statistical lie about suicide.  Completed suicides for trans-identified children are similar to kids with autism, depression and other serious mental health issues. 

I worked in group homes I know what they are really like, and they are far from ideal. Residential facilities lead kids to adopt new harmful habits, such as drug use, self-harm and violent behavior.

Youth residential facilities are usually unlocked and many kids run away into the hands of sex traffickers.

Counselors are mandated to report genuine neglect and abuse. This bill will remove this needed threshold requirement and cause more havoc on families.

My 20 years of experience with families and children have taught me that conducting therapy without any parental input is not effective.

Below is an interview I did with California Family Council about testifying against AB 665:

From the left: me, Erin Friday, Allie Snyder, and Judy

Unfortunately, despite our testimonies and many other parents who came from across the state to support us, the bill passed to the next step. This bill is headed to the Assembly floor to be voted on. You can call your representative and tell them what you think.

“The time is long overdue to judge beliefs and the policies based on them by what actually works, not by what sounds good or what makes people feel good.”-Thomas Sowell

Pamela Garfield-Jaeger is a licensed clinical social worker in California. She completed her MSW in 1999 from New York University and has been licensed in California since 2005. She has a variety of experience in schools, group homes, hospitals and community-based organizations. Since getting fired for not getting the C*VID vaccine, she has dedicated herself to educate parents and embolden other mental health professionals to challenge the ideological capture of her profession. To be more empowered and learn more on how to navigate the mental health system, please see her Parents' Guide to Mental Health.

This program includes comprehensive information, videos and resources. For a sneak peek, use code FREEMONTH23.

In addition, Pamela is offering 1:1 consultations for parents who are seeking advice on how to find appropriate mental health care and advocate for their families. book a consultation here