Success Story – Peace River
I have been working with a family for over a year now, it’s taken several months to build a trusting relationship with the 3 children ages 10 (male),12 (Female) and 13 (Female).
These 3 Children were apprehended from their parents over a year ago and placed with a family under a Temporary Guardianship order, despite supported efforts to prepare mom and dad to have the children come home, they were not able to cope/ face their addictions and the children were placed with the father’s parents (grandparents) under a Permanent Guardianship order; Kinship.
These children have been exposed to Substance Abuse in the home, Domestic Violence, Abandonment. They have endured emotional, physical and physiological abuse. Over the past year the children have struggled with loss and grief in a variety of different ways.
During the past year we have been dealing with various issues/behaviours from the children, e.g. suicidal ideation, Strong Anger issues / temper tantrums, outbursts, attention seeking behaviours. We have been working with the children on Self Esteem, Anger management, coping with stress, Stress management, and Detachment issues. We have been working closely with the grandparents to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to provide the love and support the children need to develop into successful young adults who can have safe and healthy relationships with others.
After several conversations with my Supervisor and CFS and some strong advocating for these children, it was determined that perhaps we were focusing on the wrong area, We have been sending these children to professional therapists and physiologists, and have seen very little improvement in their behaviours. The children have been trying to understand and cope with the actions of their parents and all the broken promises while they were in care, it just made sense to me that the children would greatly benefit from counseling from Addictions Services, After all, addictions was the main reason for the family breakdown in the beginning and continues to be the main reason the children cannot have a relationship with their parents.
After several emails and meetings with CFS and Addiction Services, I was able to get a referral signed for Addictions Services to provide counseling to all 3 of the children. The children can now begin to understand the effects of drugs on an individual and perhaps help them understand the decisions of their parents. Helping these children understand how much their parents still love them but have become impaired from drug use is a huge success in their daily lives, I am hoping to see many more improvements with the children’s behaviour as we work with Addictions Services and provide the knowledge and understanding that these children need.
Submitted by Eleanor Smith, Family Services Specialist, WJS Peace River, AB