Bringing Fathers Forward Spotlight: Mark Butler

This article highlights my involvement in Ohio’s “Bringing Fathers Forward” initiative, which is a statewide effort to better support and engage fathers of children with developmental disabilities by amplifying their voices and addressing their needs. 

This Dispatch opinion explains Ohio’s Multi-System Youth (MSY) program, which helps children with complex, overlapping developmental and behavioral needs by coordinating state and local services and preventing families from having to relinquish custody just to access necessary care. 

This piece tells the story of my son Andrew and our family’s experience navigating years of distant residential treatment, and what it meant, emotionally and spiritually, to finally have him come home. 

In this article, I share my family’s very personal story and how Ohio created a new support program so families don’t have to give up custody of a child with disabilities just to access care. I reflect on our experience with my son Andrew, the heartbreak of relinquishing custody for his treatment, and how this new lifeline helps keep children living with their parents whenever possible. 

In this article, I reflect on how Ohio families, including my own, have been forced to choose between keeping custody of their children and accessing needed mental health treatment. I share our experience with my son Andrew and the heartbreaking reality of that decision, as well as the advocacy work aimed at ensuring that getting care no longer means losing your child. 

This article reports that Ohio’s Medicaid program put out a request for a specialized managed-care company to coordinate services for children with complex mental health needs, part of broader efforts to better serve youth who have historically faced gaps in care and support.  

This piece describes how, in Ohio’s state budget process, parents and advocates pushed for new crisis support and behavioral health services for children with autism and complex needs, hoping the funding would help families access care without having to give up custody.  

This Interagency Work Group on Autism webinar page features a video discussion about “Multi-System Youth with Autism,” focusing on the complex mental and behavioral health needs of autistic young people who interact with multiple service systems, and includes you, your voice, and state leaders talking about these challenges and solutions. 

This October 2019 Columbus Dispatch article reports that Ohio planned to spend about $31 million in new funds to expand services so parents caring for children with mental health or complex needs could access treatment without giving up custody, aiming to keep families together and avoid the “custody for care” dilemma many Ohio families faced 

This Dispatch article explains that Ohio was moving to let parents access needed treatment for children with severe and costly conditions without having to surrender custody, a change aimed at ending the “custody for care” requirement that forced many families into heartbreaking choices. 

In this video, part of an Ohio Dominican University lecture on building inclusive communities, I reflect on the meaning of inclusion, why it matters, and how fostering belonging enriches all of us. 

In this video, I reflect on Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month by exploring how people with disabilities are portrayed in Scripture and how those viewpoints still shape attitudes today. Drawing on Catholic teaching, he invites the Church to deepen its commitment to dignity, inclusion, and creating communities where all can fully encounter Christ.