Opinion ID: 2194658
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Visitation, Counseling, and Treatment

Text: Irregularity and challenging communication characterized Amanda's interaction with DCYF and the various service providers at all relevant points in time. After the children were removed from her home, Amanda was homeless throughout most of her subsequent involvement with DCYF. At the time of the termination of parental rights trial, she had not been employed since 2002, when she worked at a real estate agency. [9] Although Amanda sometimes used e-mail at the public library to correspond with Mr. Bernardo, communication was at times rendered difficult due to her lack of a telephone and a home address. In addition, after Mr. Bernardo referred Amanda to the Families Together program of the Providence Children's Museum, [10] the program's clinician experienced difficulty in contacting Amanda, although she did initially cooperate with two intake appointments at the museum. Newport County Mental Health (NCMH) also informed DCYF that Amanda had been inconsistent in keeping her scheduled appointments with that agency. An analogous irregularity characterized Amanda's visitations with her children while they were in DCYF custody. The fact that she lacked a permanent home, a telephone, and a car contributed to the difficulties that she experienced in connection with those visits. Sometimes Amanda would meet the children at the Newport Public Library, where, according to her testimony, she would wait outside in the cold for the DCYF worker to arrive with her children out of fear that she would miss them if she entered the building, as she testified had happened before. On five or six other occasions, she testified, she arrived for her visits just as the DCYF caseworker was departing with the children. At times, Amanda could not keep her visitation appointments due to the lack of bus money, and in some of those instances she would place a collect call to Mr. Bernardo to inform him of that fact. Initially, DCYF provided Amanda with bus passes, but it did not continue to fund transportation for her after it initiated the termination of parental rights proceeding. Amanda testified that she walked to a number of her visitation appointments in inclement weather. It was further her testimony that she once hitchhiked from Connecticut to attend a visitation appointment with Brooklyn and Isaiah. Nina Stein worked with Amanda at Child & Family Services from November 27, 2002 until August 28, 2003. Ms. Stein testified that between November and March Amanda kept eleven of her fourteen personal appointments with her. In addition, Amanda received a certificate of completion on October 3, 2003 for having attended nine sessions of Ms. Stein's tensession parenting class. Ms. Stein also testified regarding Amanda's comments about her mental health. Specifically, Amanda had told Ms. Stein that she suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia. Ms. Stein also testified that Amanda reported having experienced suicidal feelings and having been a victim of rape. Ms. Stein coordinated treatment for Amanda at NCMH. After attending one intake appointment, however, Amanda did not return to NCMH because she did not want to take the medication that the NCMH clinician recommended. Amanda testified that she did not want to take the medication because it doesn't make the problems go away and make them any easier. Ms. Stein testified that Amanda told her that she was afraid the medication would have a stupefying effect on her. According to Ms. Stein, Amanda had told her that she felt she was born drunk as a result of her own mother's use of alcohol. [11] Ms. Stein testified that she believed a residential treatment facility would be appropriate for Amanda. At trial, Amanda testified that she does not drink or use drugs. She first explained her born drunk comment by saying that her Italian family had given her wine as a child; she noted further that, because of prevalent alcoholism in her family, she does not consume alcohol. In June of 2005, during the termination of parental rights trial, Amanda testified that she had not had a drink since New Year's of that year. Ms. Stein testified that Amanda ceased making appointments with her after she told Mr. Bernardo that Amanda had a problem with alcohol. Due to the child age limitations of the program, as well as Amanda's resentment about Ms. Stein's report to Mr. Bernardo, Ms. Stein and Amanda last met in August of 2003.