My first exposure to the child welfare system was as an attorney representing the Division of Children and Family Services on child abuse and neglect court cases in Arkansas. I pursued the job because I wanted to save children.
Like so many, I had a black-and-white view. I thought cases would be very clear, and if a child was placed in foster care, it likely meant the child could never safely return to that home.
In one of my first cases, two small children had been removed from a mother due to her methamphetamine addiction and her resulting neglect. As I prepared my case, I watched a video that had been accidentally created by the mother while she sat in front of a computer. She was passionately rocking and comforting her small toddler who had fallen while playing and was crying. She appeared to be a caring mother, but as she soothed her child, she picked up a meth pipe and smoked it while rocking her toddler, as if that was a normal activity.
Although shocked and appalled, I knew from that interaction that this woman was not an evil person, but a mother enslaved to her addiction.
Over the next year I watched that same mother fight to remain sober with the support of a team
of committed individuals that included her church family, DCFS caseworker, parent counsel, Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), the court, and ad litem (appointed to act in a lawsuit on behalf of a child or other person who is not considered capable of representing themselves).
She truly loved her children and wanted to overcome her addiction so that she could continue to be their mother. She was not a perfect mom at the end of the case, but she provided a safe home and a nurturing relationship for her two children, who desperately needed their mother.
Two years later I ran into the mother in the community, and she hugged and thanked me for helping her get her children back. She glowed as she talked about how well she was doing, bragged that she was still sober, and shared how her kids were thriving and how excited she was to be mentoring another parent in the system. This was a life-changing experience, and taught me that investing in families is the key to breaking generational cycles of abuse and neglect. Not every family will succeed, and sometimes it just is not safe to return children to their biological families. But focusing on children alone is not the answer, and does not reduce generational cycles of neglect.
As the child welfare director in Arkansas, I've seen firsthand an increase of children entering foster care due to parental substance abuse and neglect. It is time to get serious about addressing this issue by building up and supporting families. A guiding principle in our society is that the most desirable place for children is with their family, and if we can keep children safe, that should apply to these types of situations as well. Community support for investing in struggling families with substance abuse and poverty issues will have a much greater impact on improving children's lives and outcomes than solely focusing on saving the child.
Over the past century, our culture's primary intervention when it is not safe for a child to remain in the home has been to place the child in foster care.
Foster care remains an essential tool in many cases to ensure that children are safe, but it is not always the answer. While it offers physical safety, it causes significant trauma for the children due to the separation from the family, multiple placements, the sudden move from their school and community, and possible separation from extended family; the list goes on and on.
Research has shown a clear link between childhood trauma and the risk for physical and mental illness in adulthood. In addition, stressful or traumatic childhood experiences can result in social, emotional, and cognitive impairments, including increased risk of unhealthy behaviors, risk of violence or re-victimization, disease, disability and early death. While children suffer trauma before they enter care, they also suffer trauma because of being placed in foster care.
Once a child is placed in foster care, many of the cases have a goal of reunification. In 2016, 68 percent of children in care had a goal of reunification. Of those children, 49.2 percent of the children were reunified with their parents in 12 months.
For children who are not reunited with their families, the chance of lingering in the system increases. Last year in Arkansas, 228 youth aged out of the foster care system without a forever family.
Lingering in the system comes with high moral and financial costs. Children raised in foster care have greater risk of lower education outcomes, higher risk of adult homelessness, higher rate of incarceration, lack of employment opportunities, poverty, and a higher risk of being a human trafficking victim.
Don't get me wrong; we are working very hard to improve the foster care system for those who need it to be safe because we don't want to see our kids become part of these statistics, and we've made a lot of progress. But I wonder whether things would be different if more people in the community focused on supporting and encouraging families prior to children needing foster care, or even when the child is placed in foster care.
One of the keys to strengthening families is community support for parents on the road to recovery. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), "An important factor in the recovery process is the presence and involvement of people who believe in the person's ability to recover; who offer hope, support, and encouragement; and who also suggest strategies and resources for change. Family members, peers, providers, faith groups, community members, and other allies form vital support networks. Through these relationships, people leave unhealthy and/or unfulfilling life roles behind and engage in new roles (partner, caregiver, friend, student, employees) that lead to a greater sense of belonging, personhood, empowerment, autonomy, social inclusion, and community participation."
What would our system and our communities look like if we devoted the same zeal to focusing on families as we did on the children? Could we break the cycle and reduce the number of children entering foster care due to substance abuse and neglect if we invested in struggling families by enhancing our community supports, substance abuse treatments, and mental health systems? What could happen if we as a community supported families, so that children in the system could safely return home to families more quickly where substance abuse or neglect had been the primary factors for removal?
With more than 5,000 children in foster care, and more than half of those children entered due to substance abuse, neglect, and poverty issues, it is time to try something new to break generational cycles and improve outcomes for children. Children's outcomes are best when they can be safely with their biological family and in their community.
We at the Division of Children and Family Services and the broader Department of Human Services are committed to doing what we can from a state's perspective to strengthen families. We are wrapping around families to provide services to address lingering issues that may result in neglect. DHS also is transforming the public mental health and substance abuse treatment system in Arkansas to provide greater access to services so that DCFS can more quickly connect parents to the treatment and services they need.
DHS will not be able to address the challenges of these families alone. We must partner with communities, create a shared vision, and empower community leaders to embrace and support families. Governor Hutchinson's support of Restore Hope, which is a summit focused on bridging the gap between the government and communities, is a big step in the right direction. The community has the answers and ability to change the dynamics and restore hope for families in cities and towns all across the state. As a community, we must shift our focus and invest in strengthening families, and create improved outcomes for all of our children.
What will you do?
Mischa Martin is director of the Division of Children and Family Services at the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Editorial on 10/01/2017