I am asking for some attention to be placed on the foster and adoptive families in Maine that are being targeted by DHHS and cases that are not being handled in an appropriate way. This is affecting the willingness for families in Maine to continue to provide care for children in Maine with some of the highest behavioral and emotional needs.
The children in the Maine foster care system will continue to go without the appropriate foster homes because DHHS refuses to put the money and resources into ensuring that the protective workers coming into our homes are trained to do their jobs and able to provide the needed level of supports to our foster homes.
My case involves a child that I adopted that has reactive attachment disorder which is a serious disorder and our DHHS workers are not knowledgeable about the effects of this disorder or how to provide the needed supports to help this child. There are many other families that have children with this disorder that are not being supported. The lack of support from the DHHS workers for these families result in multiple placements for these children and continued increase in behaviors that often result in hospitalizations or residential placements. My daughter required multiple placements over the last two years and ultimately resulted in DHHS allowing her to decide her own unsafe placement because her behaviors were out of control and not manageable within a foster home. Those placements would not have occurred if DHHS would have been knowledgeable of the diagnosis and how to appropriately support her. We also have guardian ad liens that are not knowledgeable about the diagnoses these children have and are too focused on their own experiences in the foster care system to truly support the needs of our children during this process.
I have concerns with how my case has been handled by DHHS. I have multiple years of documentation stating that my rights were not honored by DHHS and at times I was completely ignored by the supervisors. I am at this time looking to receive a hearing for my substantiation that was not offered to me back in September when my appeal was denied after being reviewed while I still had an opened case. I would appreciate any assistance in pushing this process through so that I can represent my case and receive just a fraction of justice due to the years of injustice I have endured at the hands of DHHS.
We need to help the families that are experiencing injustice right now before our whole foster care system is destroyed and we are left with no families to do this very difficult work.
Blessings,
Christina Davis
Oakland, Maine
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