Opinion ID: 2824212
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: case history and court findings

Text: [¶2] The child was removed from her mother’s care at birth, in November 2012, because the child had serious health issues and her mother was unable to care for her. The father was identified as the child’s biological parent nearly a year later in early October 2013. [¶3] With the father’s agreement, the court (Mullen, J.) entered a jeopardy order in January 2014, finding jeopardy based upon the father’s “history of significant mental health concerns that have not always been appropriately managed,” including suicidal and homicidal ideations and self-injurious behaviors, which were often precipitated by stress. The court found that caring for the child would be stressful due to her medical needs and that the father “ha[d] not demonstrated appropriate, healthy coping skills for managing stress.” [¶4] In June 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services filed a petition to terminate the father’s parental rights, and a two-day hearing was held in late September 2014. The Department continued to provide reunification services up until the time of the hearing. After the hearing, the court (Fowle, J.) terminated the father’s parental rights upon finding that he is (1) unable to take responsibility for the child within a time reasonably calculated to meet her needs, and (2) unable to protect the child from jeopardy, and that this is unlikely to change within a time reasonably calculated to meet the child’s needs. See id. § 4055(1)(B)(2)(b)(i), (ii). 3 The court also found that termination is in the child’s best interest. See id. § 4055(1)(B)(2)(a). [¶5] In its judgment, the court made the following findings, which are supported by evidence in the record. The father “has been in and out of treatment for his whole life,” has attempted suicide multiple times, has engaged in self-harming behaviors including cutting and burning himself, and reports chronic suicidal ideation. He “has a history of rage episodes,” and, at a psychiatric session in June 2013, he told the doctor that he was “on the verge of snapping and that he did not want to take a shotgun and ‘kill [his family].’” The father has reported having thoughts and dreams of killing, dismembering, mutilating, and/or raping women. At times he denies that he would ever act on these thoughts, and other times he “does not know if he will act on them.” [¶6] The risk that the father will harm himself or others is lower when he has fewer responsibilities and increases as “the stress of daily living is added to [his] life.” Being the sole caretaker for the child, who has many medical needs, would cause his stress to increase. The father does not have the ability to “meet the developmental and special needs of his child.” “Even with a strong motivation to change and a strong commitment to change, it is still likely to take several years for [the father] . . . to be able to parent a medically fragile child.” The father’s 4 “mental health is likely to remain unstable for the foreseeable future,” and “the prognosis for significant change on [his] part is poor.” [¶7] The child “has significant medical issues and disabilities” and, since birth, has required a feeding tube that is inserted into her stomach through a “port” in her upper chest. The close monitoring and maintenance of this process is difficult and important to the child’s health and safety. The child “requires occupational therapy and physical therapy, two to three times each month,” due to mobility difficulties with her thumbs, ankles, and feet. She is expected to have surgery in Boston to address her thumbs, which are presently “useless.” “[The child] is thriving in her current home . . . , where she has been since January 2013.” Her foster parents “have loved her, nourished her, and assisted her with fairly complex home medical procedures.” They are willing to adopt her.