Addiction can tear lives apart. Substance misuse by one or both parents can often lead to household abuse and neglect. In some instances, the state gets involved, and the judge feels compelled to remove a child or children from the danger in the home. The parents are left to seek treatment and legal recourse while the child is placed in custody of a relative or foster family. A family disintegrates.
While sometimes necessary, this outcome is not what anyone wants — not the parent, not the child, and certainly not the court, caseworkers, and other service providers involved. That’s why, in Manchester and Sullivan County, stakeholders have come together to launch two programs to help parents dealing with substance misuse overcome barriers to reunifying their families as quickly and effectively as possible.
CASA provides children with
a voice in new programs designed to reunify families
Both the Family Treatment Court (FTC) in Sullivan County and the Manchester Supported Family Approach (SFA) are built on a collaborative, team-based methodology to each case. The support teams are driven by judges, but also involve attorneys, case workers from the Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), substance use treatment and mental health providers, and other community partners to make sure the interests of the parents are represented. But who speaks for the children?
A key team member for both of these programs is Court Appointed Special Advocates of New Hampshire (CASA), a statewide nonprofit that recruits, trains, and supports a community of volunteers who serve as court-appointed Guardian ad Litems for children and youth who have experienced abuse and neglect. The role of a CASA volunteer is to focus on the children and advocate for what’s in their best interests.
“Often the needs of the family and parents can overshadow what the child may need. The role of the CASA is to ensure the needs of the child do not get lost,” says Bernadette Melton-Plante, senior program director for CASA of New Hampshire.
“CASA’s mission to advocate for the best interest of children in abuse and neglect cases, with the goal of safe and stable reunification within 12 months, strongly aligns with these programs’ missions to facilitate reunification as quickly and safely as possible,” says Jonelle Gaffney, program director at CASA of New Hampshire.
CASA of New Hampshire is always searching for more volunteers to take up the cause of the children involved in these cases, and now these two programs offer additional opportunities for people with a passion to help to make a difference in the life of a child, the future of a family, and the stability of the community.
Family Treatment Court in Sullivan County
Two young children were removed from their parents’ home by the state because of exposure to substance misuse and domestic violence. Their mother, who had grown up in a household impacted by addiction, initially resisted the treatment the court deemed necessary for her to reunify with her children.
But because of the Family Treatment Court (FTC) in Sullivan County, the judge was able to work with the attorneys and the team of social workers, treatment providers, peer support, in-home service providers, and court-appointed child advocates, volunteers from CASA of New Hampshire. Through the judge’s patience and the help of the FTC team, the mother entered inpatient treatment, and within three months, she was reunified with her daughters at the facility. The family later moved together into a shelter, both parents continuing with therapy and parenting classes, and ultimately their case was closed after just over a year.
Started in 2021, this program serves all families with abuse and neglect cases in the Newport and Claremont Circuit Courts that involve at least one parent experiencing moderate to severe substance use disorders. The program is designed to connect families to services quickly and bring the multidisciplinary team together to break down barriers and address the often-complex issues of substance misuse. Having all these parties at the table encourages transparency and ensures timely communication between team members so that they can respond to destabilizing events as efficiently as possible. Families get the support they need by receiving help linking them to resources like housing, childcare, employment, transportation, and mental healthcare.
The goal of the FTC is to help parents enter treatment earlier, remain in treatment longer, support timely and safe reunification with their families, and decrease the time children spend out of the home. The program is more structured and collaborative than traditional abuse and neglect cases that CASA advocates typically work on.
“In FTC, everyone starts on the same page, with regular access to information and connection,” says Gaffney. “CASAs can be better informed, and although they have to set aside specific days to attend sessions, it tends to be more efficient, as CASAs receive all of their information from one place.”
Manchester Supported Family Approach
After the success of the Sullivan County FTC, Manchester followed the team-based model to create the Supported Family Approach (SFA) in July 2024.
As with the FTC, the judge plays a critical role as leader, engaging the stakeholders in the development, implementation, and ongoing operations of the program. The judge communicates with team members to identify their overlapping values and voice concerns, and allow parents in these abuse and neglect cases to participate in a way that is therapeutic for addressing substance use disorders. This enables the parents to access services much more quickly.
Unlike the FTC, the Supported Family Approach is focused on the larger need of families with at least one child under the age of 4. But here too, the family is an active part of an action plan that includes treatment, parenting support, housing, mental healthcare, providers, transportation, and any other entity that might benefit the family.
“I enjoy being part of a bigger team and there seems to be more shared decision making,” says Judith Pellettieri, CASA advocate who volunteers with the SFA. “In my five-plus years of being a CASA, I have never encountered parents who did not love their children. They have faced many hurdles, and some have had absolutely no resources to help them with everyday problems. The foster homes are often relative placements, and children have their needs met while being safe. But it always feels better when they are reunified with their parents.”
“It’s not time spent, but time invested,” says CASA advocate Charlene Baxter, describing her experience working on these FTC cases.
So, if you’re interested in making a positive difference for a child who experienced abuse or neglect due to a parent’s substance misuse, you can attend a virtual informational session or submit your application online at www.casanh.org. It’s strongly encouraged that you attend an informational session beforehand, though it is not required. If your application is accepted, you’ll be asked to attend a 60- to 90-minute interview via Zoom before you attend your training. Please note that CASA cannot guarantee volunteers will be placed on a SFA or FTC case. All of this will equip you for the work ahead of you — but nothing can quite prepare you for the personal reward of helping a child in need.
“In my two cases, babies were born with drugs in their cord blood at birth,” says Pellettieri. “They were placed in foster homes while their parents worked on remaining sober and received education about drug addiction. The babies were able to be reunified more quickly with their mothers. It has been personally rewarding.”
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This project was supported by Grant #NHJB-G-0001 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.