Opinion ID: 1298495
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Activities Pre-Dating the Neglect Petition

Text: Although the record regarding DHHR action prior to the filing of the neglect petition is scant, it appears that DHHR began working with the Appellant in 1997, attempting to assist her with allegedly inadequate housing conditions at her mobile home near Panther, West Virginia. [3] The DHHR represented to the court below that it had attempted to coordinate transportation to medical appointments for the Appellant and her children and arranged family counseling, individual counseling, and homemaking, infant care and parenting skills training through the Children's Home Society and Tug River Health. The record contains nothing beyond the bare representations of the child protective services worker regarding these third-party efforts and does not contain the testimony of representatives of these agencies. Consequently, this Court is unaware of the frequency and content of such services or the degree of success attained by these outside agencies. On February 29, 2000, child protective services worker John Propst [4] visited the home for approximately twenty minutes and concluded that the Appellant's eight-year-old son John required medical attention for a cut on his face, incurred in a fall on a railroad tie. The Appellant had treated the child's injury, but had not sought medical attention for the injury. [5] Mr. Propst also noticed that the home was dirty and that furniture and bags of clothing cluttered the rooms of the mobile home. As had been the case during the time Mr. Propst had been working with the family, there was no running water coming into the home. There was, however, a water line to the front door of the mobile home where the mother obtained water for flushing the toilet and other purposes. A neighbor had assisted the Appellant in obtaining a water line to the front door of the home.