Opinion ID: 1366408
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: rehabilitation efforts

Text: William Clark, a social worker and mental health counselor for Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center in Sheridan, Wyoming, described ZLW as having a chronic histrionic personality disorder and an alcohol abuse problem. Her condition is characterized by sudden changes in mood and affect, overreaction to daily events resulting in temper tantrums and low level impulse control, and difficulty in forming and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Reed S. Morrill, Ph.D., family and child specialist at the same mental health center, agreed with that description. Dr. Morrill attributed ZLW's condition to her childhood experiences of parental neglect, abuse, and sexual molestation at the hands of her step-father. ZLW's condition seriously interferes with her relationships with her children. She sees herself as a victim when her children make common daily demands on her as a parent, and she seeks out partners who will further victimize her. She does not function on a normal adult level when trying to control her anger. She has had a very difficult time overcoming the denial of her early victimization which has affected the choices she makes in her adult life. ZLW's primary means of socialization has been to go to bars several times a week to consume alcohol and socialize with bar patrons. On occasion when ZLW was working in a bar, ZLW brought the children into the bar with her for several hours. Characteristic of her condition, she has tended to resist counseling and psychotherapy; her resistance and denial of problems seem over and above that attributable to her disorder. Appropriate treatment for ZLW would consist of intense psychotherapy counseling twice weekly over two years. Without successfully completing such intensive treatment, ZLW will probably continue to treat her children as she herself was treated as a child. With this appreciation and understanding of ZLW's condition, D-PASS tried to rehabilitate her by planning and initiating parenting classes and counseling sessions for her. D-PASS urged her to attend a weekend intervention program for alcohol abuse. Although she made initial progress and some improvement was observed, ZLW ultimately failed at rehabilitation in large part because of her sporadic attendance at counseling sessions and parenting classes, her ambivalence in wanting to improve, her lack of desire to become involved in an alcohol support group, and her lack of desire to place her children's needs above her own. Perhaps most telling is ZLW's own description of her attitude toward the rehabilitation efforts. When asked at trial if she was willing to continue with counseling as recommended by the alcohol abuse intervention program, she answered: I would and I wouldn't.    I guess it would be like trying to fit it into the schedule and still have time for other things. In the opinion of her counselors Mr. Noteboom, Mr. Clark, and Dr. Morrill, ZLW's rehabilitation efforts have been unsuccessful. Considering the evidence presented by D-PASS and considered by the district court, we are satisfied that the evidence clearly and convincingly established that the appropriate rehabilitation efforts on ZLW's behalf failed.