sort-of removal (ie take 2)

Yep, still being evil and stealing children! Today I did a sort-of removal where the kids (call them Jake and Celia) were with mom in a trial home placement at a treatment facility, but she got kicked out. Too bad dad is in jail so he can't care for them either (said a little sarcastically, I'll admit). In this case, it was fairly inivitable but I still had hoped that the parents would get it together! Too bad they just feel like everyone is out to get them and they are the best parents in the world.... yep thats my job to persecute the best parents in the world, FYI!

Total denial of how drugs have got them to this point in their lives. Total denial of how the neglect while they are high has effected their children. I'm not sure these guys are going to get it because you can't hit much more bottom then your kids getting removed, but here it is again. Just so frustrating! These kids want to be with their parents, I want them to be with their parents, and so does the family, but the parents are too focused on being the victims and continuing in their drug lifestyle. In this state they only get 12 months to turn it all around, and here we are 5 months into the program! NO MORE EXCUSES, NO MORE MESS UPS, NO MORE ATTITUDE! its like dealing with my teens :)

Speaking of teens, one of my RADteens is doing good this week (Celest). YAY! After reading some of the RADblogs, I'm going to see about getting her into EMDR, as we have a provider that we contract with that does it now. Their waiting list is getting huge because everyone is hearing about the awesome results they are having. Anyways Celest has really done awesome when I think of all she has been through. I sure wish she had had someone committ to her way back when. Talk about a depressing! I did her timeline about a year ago. Here is a kid whose story reads just like all the classic problems with foster care kids (languishing while waiting for parents to get it together, failed homes, no adoption goal, abused in a foster home, etc). There is actually a young woman (Sophie) interested in adopting her (I can say that as she is a couple of years younger then me), but Sophie has just been so flaky that it has almost made things worse. GRRRRR! (canceling visits, not setting up home rules and boundaries, etc). I don't know about you all but when I get a new case with a diagnosis, or something that I'm not completely familiar with I do my homework! Here is someone who says she is interested in adopting, but has yet to even understand what Celest has been through and how its affected her. When you cancel plans, or even percieved plans OF COURSE it effects my gal. DUH!

anyways I'm so glad things have changed in my state from when Celest first came into care (almost 14 years ago as she is almost 17). One of my kids, Freeda, just got adopted a couple of months ago at age. Freeda would probably be headed for the same life as Celest if things were done the same way, but fortunately for Freeda, she has a chance for something more now. I had a team meeting with Freeda's older brother Greg today and something is up with bio-mom. Sure enough I got a message tonight from the drug court team that she got arrested this weekend. Funny how that didn't come up in the team meeting :) Couldn't have been anything too major as she was released the next day, but I'll need to follow up on that. Oh joy. Well visitation isn't going to go unsupervised anytime soon!

Greg was pissed off the whole meeting because he can't find his i-pod. I told him to call his last placement and that didn't make him feel happy at all. Placement was a kinship/child specific placement that knew Greg from school and liked him and wanted to help. Yet again well-meaning people who didn't do their homework, felt that I was naieve (they didn't like his group home which granted wasn't perfect, but Greg was doing better then he had done previously), and were easily traingulated/manipulated by Greg. Because this was something that Greg was working for, and I felt one of the few chances for permanecy/normalcy for Greg, I pulled tons of strings for Greg to get to go there and step down from the group home by Christmas. They blew off every suggestion I made about the level of structure and supervision Greg needed. I realy tried to make this work, but it was almost a relief when Greg blew it, as it was going to disrupt eventually once they saw the not so charming side of Greg. They told him that one of their rules was no substance abuse. Pretty sure I told them that Greg liked to huff. Pretty sure I specifically warned about aresole items, inluding body spray as that is one of his favs. Guess what they found him doing? Guess they decided evil social worker didn't really know what she was talking about. Not that I'm still upset about that or anything.....

Anyways Greg is doing well in his new home. I'm pretty impressed with the rules they've laid out and the structure/supervision they've got. Not sure I'm real impressed with the therapist yet, but we will see. I sure hope he doesn't blow this one because the next time he is going JJS (ie out of foster care and into the criminal system) and I can't do much for him then. Yet again why I'm happy Freeda has an opportunity for a life seperate from this bio families dysfunction and destruction (4 generations of it). They are doing an open adoption with visits, etc all according to Freeda's needs. YAY!

Tomorrow I need to figure out which home to place Suzie with. oh joy. This is an icky case. 16 year old, DV family- more emotional/mental/psycological then physical but thats worse on the kids and harder to prove. Suzie has problems with being truthful so that doesn't help figure out whats going on in the family since she says one thing, they say another, etc. Truth usually ends up somewhere in the middle. Glad I've got an on the ball RFC (foster family coordinator) for this one!

My super supervisor sent me a list of all I need to do for the upcoming QCR's. I swear if they pull my name I will seriously consider quiting. I was dead set on doing that if they pulled me last year, and they didn't so I'm more optomistic this year. My supervisor really is the best, but I'm so far behind on documentation that if I take the time to catch up I won't do any actual casework for weeks/months!

I was going to type up my notes from CFTMs (team meetings) tonight (I think I'm current till October?), put in my home visits for last month and put off the rest tonight, but I decided to just come home, eat, blog, and go to bed instead (ie put it all off!). Don't worry there will be more to document tomorrow so my to do list will just get longer :)