FATHER SEEKS THAT HIS CHILD NOT SPEND TIME WITH THE MOTHER DUE TO HER MENTAL ILLNESS
Earnhart & Earnhart [2019] FCCA 2501 (7 October 2019)
This is a parenting dispute about the best interests of a child, X, born in 2005. The applicant father seeks that he has sole parental responsibility, that the child lives with him and spends no time at all with her mother since the father is concerned about mother’s mental health. The respondent-mother seeks that there be orders for supervised time at a contact centre and thereafter a review.
Facts:
Dr C has filed an affidavit which annexes his report on the mother whom he assessed in July 2018. Dr C diagnosed the mother as suffering from social and generalized anxiety disorder, schizoaffective disorder and differential diagnosis bipolar 1 disorder.
The father sought sole parental responsibility. His position was that this was a safety issue because orders had not been complied with. There was no third party evidence that the mother was taking the prescribed drugs. If she cannot do this while in the conduct of court proceedings, she would not otherwise be able to do so. There should be no time spent where there was family violence because the safety of the child was at risk.
The mother said she had seen the psychiatrist and taken her medication. She had also executed a statutory declaration, with her GP as a witness, saying she was complying. She was not concerned to oppose sole parental responsibility provided that the father did not relocate. She sought six supervised visits and then unsupervised time.
Issue: Should the father have sole parental respsonsibility and the child spend no time with the mother?
Law:
Analysis:
The father does not think that there is any benefit to X in having a meaningful relationship with her mother. That is the crux of his case. His case is that the mother’s ill health makes it inappropriate for X to see her at all. He has asserted that the mother is likely to have another psychotic episode because she had, as he puts it, two episodes in 2015 and 2019. There is no medical evidence anywhere in this case that supports that thesis.
X was in the primary care of her mother until 2015 and even until 2017 was in equal care. Apart from her ill health, there is nothing to suggest that the mother failed to participate in making decisions with the child or spend time and communicate with her.
In the circumstances, it is clearly in X’s best interests that she be given the opportunity to see her mother, like what she said according to the family report. With a child of this age and maturity her views are likely to be, in effect, determinative, and it is clearly in her best interests that she be given the proper opportunity that the court thinks she deserves to develop and articulate these opinions.
Conclusion: The father to have sole parental responsibility for the child. The mother to spend time with the child at a supervised contact center for six visits.