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This
case involves an appeal from the trial court's order terminating
the parental rights of the respondent mother for failing to rehabilitate.
On appeal, the respondent mother alleged that the court-ordered
specific steps placed unreasonable demands on her, causing her to
feel overwhelmed, make poor decisions, and appear as though she
was abdicating her parental responsibility. The appellate court
affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
On September
13, 2005, DCF invoked a 96-hour hold on behalf of the three-month-old
child, Cheila R., after her mother indicated that she was overwhelmed,
depressed, and no longer desired to parent her daughter. The child
was adjudicated neglected and committed to the department after
a finding that the respondent mother had unresolved mental health
and sexual victimization issues that negatively impacted her ability
to parent.
On June
5, 2006, the respondent was placed at a maternity group home to
facilitate reunification. On more than one occasion, the respondent
requested that the child be returned to foster care to allow her
off-site overnight visits with her boyfriend. She also violated
the department's service agreement by having her child ride in the
maternal grandmother's car, which lacked a child safety seat and
had been totaled but never repaired. On September 29, 2006, the
respondent requested that the child be placed in foster care. Over
the next few months, the respondent failed to attend visits with
her daughter and said that she was willing to consent to termination.
In affirming
the judgment of the trial court, the appellate court agreed that
the department had made reasonable efforts to reunify, but that
the respondent mother had "not come to terms with her need for mental
health treatment and education, in addition to gaining employment,
housing and parenting skills that any parent must possess to protect
and nurture a child." The court agreed that termination was in the
best interests of the child, who was not bonded to her mother and
had thrived in a pre-adoptive foster home.
The case
may be accessed by going to the Judicial Branch website at http://www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/Cases/AROap/AP112/112AP148.pdf
Sarah
Healy Eagan, Esq.
Director, Child Abuse Project
Center for Children's Advocacy
University of Connecticut School of Law
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