MAHONING COUNTY Court offers help to parents

The focus is on restoring and reuniting families.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Drug- or alcohol-addicted parents who are at risk of losing their children to foster care can find help through a new program that starts this week at Mahoning County Juvenile Court.
Called the Family Dependency Treatment Court, its focus is on reuniting abused and neglected children with their families, said Judge Theresa Dellick.
"We're trying to make these families functional," the judge said. "Our goal is to reunify kids with their parents."
The program targets families whose children are removed from the home by the county Children Services Board because of problems in the home, usually neglect or substance abuse, Judge Dellick said.
Parents can enter the dependency treatment court and, if they complete it, get their children back. If they don't complete the program, the children are placed in foster care. Families will be referred into the program by CSB, the judge said.
"It's an opportunity for these parents to get it together and try to keep their family together," Judge Dellick said.
Objective
The idea, the judge said, is to get parents off drugs and help them address mental health issues.
"We're going to give them the tools to be responsible parents," she said.
Parents enter the program voluntarily and are first given a chemical dependency analysis and a mental health assessment.
After their needs are identified, the parents are referred to proper care providers in the community, said Donna McCollum, juvenile court magistrate.
McCollum and Judge Dellick said several community agencies are participating in the program, including CSB, Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic, Family Services Agency, the county prosecutor's office, the county bar association and the county Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board.
Judge Dellick said the program is important because she believes it will not only restore many of the families who enter it, but it will also help reduce juvenile crime in the long run.
She said history has shown that children who live in homes with chemically dependent parents, or who are abused and neglected, often end up with delinquency records. By intervening while the children are young, court staff members hope to see changes.
"The sooner you curb inappropriate behavior, the more likely that change will occur," Judge Dellick said.
Pattern
She said the court is patterned after traditional drug courts, which are used at all levels of court in Mahoning County. Those courts, however, treat offenders who have committed crimes related to their drug dependency.
In the family dependency court, the children involved are not charged with crimes. They are from homes where their parents need help with substance abuse and basic parenting skills.
"We have found that drug court works," Judge Dellick said. "What we are doing is taking the drug court model and applying it to our families."
The program is funded through a grant from the Ohio Supreme Court and is staffed by personnel already in place at the juvenile court, Judge Dellick said.
McCollum said the program should be completed in nine months, although it can take up to 12 months in some cases.
She said six families have been identified as eligible for the program so far.
bjackson@vindy.com