Suffer the children

Flathead County neglect cases rise sharply

Social workers are on pace to remove more Flathead County children from their homes this year than when the methamphetamine epidemic in Montana was at its height, taxing the resources of an already overburdened child welfare system.

"I don't know how the intake unit has been doing it as long as they have with a short staff that's always on the go," said Pat Sylvia, Flathead County intake supervisor for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services' Child and Family Services Division.

In the first quarter of 2009, 36 dependent neglect cases were filed in Flathead County District Court - triple the number of cases filed in the same three-month period last year.

Several additional cases have been filed this month.

The county is on pace this year to far exceed the 53 dependent neglect cases filed in 2008. Fifty-five cases were filed in 2007, 93 were filed in 2006 (the height of the meth years' and 56 were filed in 2005, according to court records.

"For all of us who work in the court system, these numbers are pretty high," Flathead County District Court Administrator Bonnie Olson said.

Only about 10 percent of abuse or neglect reports investigated by the county's Child and Family Services Division culminate in the filing of a dependent neglect case in District Court.

"But we don't normally file them and leave children in the home, that's rare," Sylvia said.

About half the children removed from their homes eventually end up back with a parent or some variation of their original family. Despite the state's statutory preference for reunification, that number is shrinking as the problems that bring families to the attention of social workers become more serious.

"By the time we have the ability to remove a child from the home, the problems are so much more severe than they used to be," said Sylvia, who began noticing the trend during the methamphetamine epidemic earlier this decade.

While there is no single cause for the rise in dependent neglect cases, officials said they suspect a faltering economy is leading to an increase in substance abuse and domestic violence.

"I believe it has something to do with the economy," said Sylvia, who added that other Western states also are seeing a rise in abuse and neglect cases. "This is more across the board than what we saw with meth."

As the stress of lost jobs or tightening budgets increases, parents without safety nets in place can resort to certain coping mechanisms - often drugs or alcohol.

Sylvia said many of the new cases have involved very young parents, teen mothers or women in their early 20s who are both single and in relationships.

"Many of our clients just don't have the support system," she said.

Officials with Court Appointed Special Advocates - a nonprofit group of volunteers who represent the interests of child abuse or neglect victims in court - are experiencing an increase in cases on the national level, which they, too, believe may be the result of the recession.

"We are seeing more cases of extreme household neglect," said Jamie Campbell, CASA for Kids program director in Flathead County, who described some of the households from which children were removed as "filthy."

While substance abuse and neglect have long been reasons children are removed from their homes, the current economy may be an exacerbating factor, she said.

"The only thing that's changed, that we're aware of, is the economy," Campbell said. "But there isn't anything hard yet, there will have to be some studies. But yeah, cases are jumping."

Whatever the reason, the volume of children being removed from their homes is severely straining the resources - both monetary and in terms of personnel - of area child welfare agencies.

"We're back to calling people in the middle of the night," said Sylvia, adding that it can now takes several attempts before finding a child even temporary placement.

When fully staffed, Sylvia's intake unit employs six social workers. She currently has five, which she acknowledges is better than the four she used to have.

Social workers remove children in "imminent risk" and only with a court order. One option is to place children with a relative, but many families simply don't have that support system in place either, Sylvia said.

Campbell, Flathead County's CASA program director, said she has 10 cases awaiting advocates, but expects only three volunteers to become available.

"That's not going to cover it," said Campbell, who has scheduled an emergency session next month to train additional advocates. "We really need the community to be aware of the problem, and that it's going to increase."

Despite CASA's 53-person pool of volunteers, many children currently are waiting to be matched with advocates, who take only one or two cases at a time and then investigate them in depth.

After children are removed from their homes, an advocate is assigned to the corresponding dependent neglect case filed in court. Advocates - independent of parents, social workers, or attorneys - make recommendations to the judge regarding the child's eventual placement independent of the parents, social workers, or their attorneys.

"The CASA volunteer… is appointed by the court to investigate, lobby, and advocate on behalf of the child or children," Campbell said. "They're the only person on the case whose sole responsibility is to speak to the best interest of the child."

The recession has pinched funding to nonprofits across the county at a time when their services are in ever greater demand.

"We're definitely seeing an increase in need as we're seeing a decrease in funding," Campell said.

At the Flathead County Youth Home, fundraising is often used to make up the difference, said program director Lance Isaak.

"People are still willing to give, they just can't give as much," he said.

Children removed from their parents' custody often spend time in area youth homes while awaiting placement with a family member or in the foster care system.

"We're busy," said Berni McDonald, program manager of the Intermountain Providence Home south of Kalispell. "We've been running full."

More than 30 children have come through the eight-bed facility since it opened its doors in January, McDonald said.

One evening in mid-February, the youth home received three children that social workers had removed from their parents - bringing the facility to capacity. Four other children were turned away that night.

Since the beginning of the year, the youth home has sent about 15 children elsewhere because of lack of space, McDonald said.

Children often arrive at the youth home without proper clothing or school supplies. And the facility, which receives infants up to children 12 years old, is currently home to five kids under age 5.

"I can't tell you how many snow boots we bought," McDonald said. "We're going through a lot of diapers."

Youth homes not only accept children in crisis, but give social workers time to investigate that crisis and provide what are often much-needed services - including counseling, medical care and dental visits.

"That makes a huge difference for some of these kids that have been neglected," Isaak said.

The number of children the Flathead County Youth Home is asked by child protective services to accept has been increasing over the last four years, Isaak said.

"The one thing we've noticed that I haven't seen in the past is an influx of siblings," said Isaak, who has been asked to place three or four sibling groups since January. "That's a different dynamic than we're used to."

The Flathead Youth Home, which accepts children ages 10 to 18, is scheduled to move into a new facility on East Oregon Street in early May.

Isaak said people sometimes ask him how he feels about mixing neglected or abused children with juvenile offenders.

"My answer to that is really they're the same kids. Juvenile delinquents are usually abused, too, they've just found an illegal way to act out that pain," he said.

Like youth homes, resources available to the foster care system are stretched thin.

"The foster families we have licensed and available are full," said Diana Lamers, who licenses and trains Flathead County foster and adoptive families for Child and Family Services.

There are about 10 licensed foster families in Flathead County, not including those licensed for specific children, Lamers said. Becoming a foster parent is a long process that that includes an 18-hour training course followed by 30 to 40 hours of interviews, home visits and background checks.

Lamers, who looks to traditional foster homes if appropriate care with a relative can't be found, said she is looking for creative ways to place children removed from their homes in familiar but safe environments.

"The hardest thing is when siblings are split up or when they have to leave their immediate community or school," Lamers said. "We want to keep as many connections the same because foster care is difficult enough."

Drug use by parents has contributed significantly to the number of children coming through the Providence Home, said McDonald, who also co-founded the Glacier Center for Families, a drug-testing facility and peer-to-peer support agency for substance abusers in Kalispell.

Sylvia agreed.

"We've seen a real increase in the use of prescription drugs," she said. "It's how they affect the ability to parent."

But in addition to an explosion in prescription drugs, especially painkillers, people also are beginning to test positive more frequently for methamphetamine and cocaine, McDonald noted.

Children coming to the youth home from drug backgrounds often are forced to play catch-up with their peers and adjust, sometimes for the first time, to the routines of a functioning family - such as observing normal bed times.

"They have significant issues," McDonald said. "We work really hard in helping our children succeed with just normal functioning."

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com