Critics say a state office’s professed inability to review the work of mental health experts in Family and Matrimonial Court leaves children at risk.
When Anna Frank lost custody of her 9-year-old son, she blamed her husband and the judge who decided the case in his favor.
She also faulted Barbara Burkhard, a psychologist appointed to evaluate the family and advise the court on the matter. According to Frank, Burkhard concluded — after meeting Frank once and without interviewing her son — that their claims of abuse were invented and that Frank had poisoned her child against his father.
Frank ultimately regained custody of her son, based partly on testimony from other psychologists who disputed Burkhard’s contentions. But before she did, she sought sanctions against Burkhard from the agency that oversees licensed psychologists in New York. [Read Full Article]
