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Helen is a 25-year old female who was initially referred for services due to a severe parenting deficiency that led to involvement with Child Protection Services.
Helen was homeless and refused to bathe or provide basic care for her child, Stephanie, age 11 months. As a result, Stephanie was placed in foster care.
Helen was referred to The Salvation Army, which offers a supervised visitation programs in several counties in conjunction with the local Department of Social Services. Supervised visitation provides safe opportunities for parents to visit their children who are in foster care.
Helen had twice weekly supervised visitations that started in January of 2014 and are still occurring at 2 hours a week.
Initially, Helen used inappropriate sarcasm with the child calling her a “brat,” and also demonstrated a lack of parenting skills that left the child confused. Helen had extremely low energy during the visit and would often stare at Stephanie while letting her run around the room without direction. Her skills were so weak, that Helen did not know how to mix formula in the bottle. Stephanie reacted by fussing, crying and rejecting her mother’s minimal efforts at affection and bonding.
Some 98 visits later, Helen has secured housing, completed parenting training, substance abuse and mental health evaluations. Stephanie runs out to the hallway and yells “Mommy!” when her mother arrives and they exchange hugs and affections. Helen is active during the visit reading to her daughter and engaged with her while they are visiting.
Erie County Family Court and Erie County Department of Social Services are currently evaluating whether to return the child to Helen from foster care.
Tags: Faces of The Army