If you want to lose your children and make them wards of the Court, one of the best possible ways to accomplish this as quickly as possible is to have a substance abuse problem. In, In the Interest of M.P., 2017 Pa. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 3328 (Pa. Super. Ct. Sept. 7, 2017), the child, M.P., was the youngest of three children. Two previous children had been taken from the parents due to substance abuse, mental health and a criminal history.
In the matter at bar the child was born with a methadone addiction if that can be believed. This, of course caused the child to be immediately declared a ward of the state and taken away from the mother. The Court, if there is a chance for rehabilitation of the parents, typically establishes a Family Service Plan that creates goals and a pathway that hopefully results in the parents getting clean and proving their ability to parent. The parents of course failed to follow through and missed appointments, failed drug screens repeatedly and importantly failed Court ordered mental examinations and assessments. Based upon these failures, the Court moved to terminate parental rights.
Rights can be terminated for several reasons. In this case, “the repeated and continued incapacity, abuse, neglect or refusal of the parent has caused the child to be without essential parental care, control or subsistence necessary for his physical or mental well-being and the conditions and causes of the incapacity, abuse, neglect or refusal cannot or will not be remedied by the parent.”
The Court is then tasked to examine the parents and establish by clear and convincing evidence that in the best interests of the child, parental rights should be terminated. The Court indicated that the trauma of removal from the parent is far outweighed by the stability and love the child would receive in a foster home. The Court upheld this determination.
The very strong and clear takeaway here is that if you have a substance abuse problem, you need to deal with it immediately and with permanency. The consequences to the custody of your children are dire.