Keeping families together | MailTribune.com

Statewide move to aid at-risk children grew from program formed in Jackson County

Buy This Photo

A child finds a haven at the Family Nurturing Center in Medford, part of a Jackson County pilot program whose success led to a statewide law requiring counties to implement programs that strengthen and preserve families struggling with addiction and abuse issues by Oct. 1.Bob Pennell

"; aryZooms[imgCounter] = "javascript: NewWindow(870,625,window.document.location+'&Template=photos&img="+imgCounter+"')"; var photoCredit = "Bob%20Pennell"; if (!photoCredit) { document.getElementById('purchasePhoto').style.display = "none"; } else if (creditCheck(photoCredit)) { document.getElementById('purchasePhoto').style.display = "none"; } else { document.getElementById('purchasePhoto').style.display = "inline"; } bolImages=true;

September 16, 2012

"; aryZooms[imgCounter] = "javascript: NewWindow(870,625,window.document.location+'&Template=photos&img="+imgCounter+"')";

AJackson County pilot program that helps abused and neglected children by supporting the entire family has proven so successful it is rolling out across the state as a new law ? and gaining national recognition.

"The average number of kids in foster care for the past 10 to 15 years has been between 440 to 450 per year. We've reduced that number in Jackson County to about half," or about 240, said state Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland.

"This is a huge, revolutionary change."

Oregon Senate Bill 964, passed in June of 2011, requires the Department of Human Services and other county partners to implement programs that strengthen, preserve and reunify families by Oct. 1. It was drafted following months of meetings Bates and his wife held in their living room, where he and fellow Southern Oregon legislators met with treatment providers, child advocates, school administrators and program participants.

The bill is now being implemented by other counties across the state and is under review as a national model, as news spreads of Jackson County's success in the collaborative family recovery effort spearheaded by OnTrack Inc. Executive Director Rita Sullivan, Bates said.

The notion that society can rescue at-risk kids by isolating them from their parents and placing them in foster care is a false one, Sullivan said.

She believes such a policy has only created a new generation of parents who in turn abuse their children out of ignorance and addiction, she said.

Funded by two federal grants, and with the support of several community partners, Sullivan began betting on a different plan for Jackson County families five years ago, said Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Crain.

Crain presides over Community Family Court and Drug Court programs. She has spoken nationally about the effectiveness of Jackson County's programs, which have proven to reduce recidivism and the amount of time a child spends in foster care. She recently won a state 2012 Chief Justice Juvenile Court Champion award for her lifetime contributions in juvenile dependency and child welfare issues.

The new system still protects children and requires parents to be accountable, Crain said. But the holistic program has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in children in foster care by providing wraparound support for struggling parents, Crain said.

OnTrack and other partners offer parents a period of stable housing, drug and alcohol counseling, parenting education and therapeutic care for their children, Sullivan said.

"The federal government could see foster care costs rising, and the outcomes were bad," Sullivan said.

The grants Sullivan wrote and won for the county are sundowning at the end of this year, Crain said. She and others hope that additional state and federal funding, redirected DHS dollars and savings from fewer foster-care homes will help sustain the new system that is showing such success.

A practicing physician for more than 30 years, Bates said he has seen innocent children bear the consequences of bad parenting all too often. Like many, Bates was a staunch believer that the best way to rescue a child born into these circumstances was to remove that child permanently ? and as quickly as possible, he said.

"My position was that was the only way for the child to have a chance at success," Bates said. "It took me awhile to be open to facts."

Sullivan and the other partners presented facts that could not be ignored, he said. For 30 years Oregon has had one of the highest number of foster children in the nation ? and a data trail showing most were failing in life. Bates said he learned the population was rife with dropouts, drug and alcohol abusers, criminals cycling in and out of incarceration. And the worst news of all, they were creating a new generation of lost children.

"Once we saw it wasn't working, we needed to know why, and what to do," Bates said.

Most children sent into Oregon's foster care system are never adopted, Bates said. Many go from one foster-care home to another. Feelings of loss, loneliness and alienation of being shuffled from home to home and school to school are compounded by their lack of a family safety net, he said.

Once the children age out of the system at 18, they are set adrift. Many fall prey to the cycle of drug addiction and criminal behavior that plagued their parents, said Pam Bergreen, Jackson County Department of Human Services coordinator.

The new mandates and programs are welcomed by DHS caseworkers, said Bergreen. In fact, it's been a dream of hers since she was a caseworker in the mid-1970s.

"; aryZooms[imgCounter] = "javascript: NewWindow(870,625,window.document.location+'&Template=photos&img="+imgCounter+"')";

"I used to have a dream where if I won the lottery, I'd send the whole family to get help," Bergreen said. "The truth is the more we invest, and the sooner we invest, the greater the human savings will be and the greater the fiscal savings will be."

Not every parent should get their children back under the new mandates. Nor will they, said Sullivan.

"We're not Pollyannas," said Sullivan.

Twenty percent to 30 percent of parents should not have their children returned because they are physically violent or sexually abusive. But for the other 70 percent to 80 percent who are struggling with addiction or other issues, the new law allows DHS a vehicle to do what it's been trying to do, she said.

"The majority of kids (who are removed from the home by DHS) go back home anyway," Sullivan said. "Let's strengthen the family and not break those bonds."

Parent and child have a primal attachment, Bergreen agreed.

"The truth is, what can be more traumatic for a child than the loss of their parent? Even if a child is voluntarily placed in adoption proceedings, to lose that is devastating," she said.

There is strength in families, even dysfunctional ones. Many parents who are addicted are not abusive. But in many families where the parents struggle with addiction or mental health issues, the child becomes the caregiver.

"A lot of these kids worry, worry, worry about their moms and dads," Bergreen said. "My hope has always been to keep that child with that family and push trouble out of their lives."

Jessica Scott, 29, works as a women's outpatient counselor at OnTrack.

Scott's parents were meth addicts, and her life was filled with chaos and criminal behavior, she said. Scott followed her own path into drugs and crime. She married and had her first child at age 17. Two more children resulted from a second relationship. Ultimately, Scott's drug use and behavior caused her children to be taken by the state and placed in the temporary custody of her father, who had become sober and remarried after leaving Scott's mother.

"I just got super crazy after that," Scott said. "I wish I could say that wasn't how I reacted, but I did. But one day I just woke up and thought, 'I just want my kids back.' It's not normal to be a mom and not have your kids with you."

Scott was lucky her children were able to stay with a family member. And that they were returned to her. She is also grateful that after a relapse in 2007, she was able to get into OnTrack crisis housing. The program she entered allowed her to get the treatment she needed while keeping her children with her.

"I think that all the services, all of the tools, and that piece of not having my children taken, it all helped me through," Scott said.

After pumping gas at minimum wage to support her three children, Scott attended Rogue Community College and was eventually hired by OnTrack in 2009. Scott now goes with DHS workers to offer OnTrack services.

Scott's mother is now sober as well, she said.

"My whole family is in recovery," Scott said.

Jennifer Mylenek, director of Court Appointed Special Advocates, also attended the strategy meetings at Bates' home. Creating a viable network of support for at-risk families is challenging work, she said.

"It's a complicated piece of work," said Mylenek. "The notion that we rescue the kids by 'killing' the parents isn't a solution."

While the number of children placed in foster care has been drastically reduced, the number of abuse and neglect cases is on the rise, Mylenek said. Families are still dealing with addiction, poverty and generational abuse issues. But the solution for ending the cycle appear to be on the horizon with the new system of supportive intervention. The success rate, measured by the number of kids who are not re-entering the system, is more than 60 percent, Mylenek said.

"There's a lot more hope for a lot more kids," Mylenek said.

Crain said there are still between 400 to 500 petitions for temporary or permanent state custody filed in Jackson County per year. But even when a child must be removed from his home, there is an effort to find a family member who can take him. And, if not, a new breed of foster parents is working to nurture the child while helping his parents gain skills, she said.

"We used to recruit foster parents to be avenging angels," Bergreen said. "But our mission is to return children to their parents, to their families."

Krystal McQuade, 28, was sexually abused as a child. Her molester denied the abuse and was never punished, she said. The betrayal made her lose faith in all adults. She started smoking marijuana at age 13, and meth when she was 15.

"I found I could numb myself using drugs," McQuade said, adding she barely finished the seventh grade and ran away from home.

She entered a series of abusive relationships. McQuade has three children by two fathers. Her mother took custody and eventually adopted her oldest daughter. Her second daughter is with the child's paternal grandfather, she said.

Now one year sober, thanks to OnTrack programs, McQuade has custody of her young son.

"Every goal that I have is built upon myself and my kids," McQuade said. "I was very broken before I came to OnTrack. I was so done with drugs and so afraid to ask for help."

Sullivan said simply becoming sober does not necessarily make one a better parent. While McQuade was getting clean and sober, her son received care at another program partner, the Family Nurturing Center, she said.

Mary-Curtis Gramley is the executive director of the therapeutic care nursery. Gramley and staff perform assessments on infants and toddlers and visit their homes to determine whether there are safety threats following referrals from OnTrack, DHS or family court, Gramley said. And they offer respite and education to struggling parents, she said.

"We hear over and over about the trauma of removing a child from its parents. Now add to that the issue of many other challenges. We can ask just so much of children before they just can't give it to us," Gramley said. "We're asking people to live their lives differently so that they can care for their children."

McQuade is working on adopting her oldest daughter back from her mother, and rebuilding her relationship with her middle child.

"It's a whole lot brighter on this side of the fence," McQuade said. "Every step was a miracle."

Sullivan and the other partners are eager to take this wrap-around care model and use it with parents who are suffering from mental illness or from developmental delays or domestic violence issues. The savings in lives and money should make it self-sustaining, Sullivan said.

"If we know kids are better off in families, we need to have the financing to make that happen," Sullivan said.

Source: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120916/NEWS/209160307/-1/rss01

alabama vs lsu bcs championship game beyonce baby detroit auto show tebow broncos ben roethlisberger downton abbey season 2