Heather Bjorgo story
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I happened upon your web site, and would like to submit a letter I am sending out in regard to my daughter and
her two children:
Can you help these children?
Due to my ignorance, for I actually believed that DSHS and CPS wanted what was best for children, I find myself
in a position of needing to find a way to help my grandchildren.
My daughter is a 24-year-old divorced mother of two children, ages 4 and 6. Since the birth of her children she
has won a battle over her thought processing disorder and received her G.E.D. However, she has had a rougher time
dealing with her bipolar disorder and depression. Two years ago she was making headway in this area with medication,
however DSHS then stopped her medical benefits and she left without the ability to get the medications she needed.
After she and her children were living in a shelter for nine months, she hooked up with Housing Hope, and was given
the opportunity for independent living. However, her bipolar disorder without her medications got out of control
and she became manic. On August 27 of last year she was committed to Compass Health on a mental health hold, and
her children placed into foster care. She remained hospitalized for one month. In the past five months she has
been under counseling, her medications have been fine-tuned to where she is very stable emotionally, and she has
been in a training program through Housing Hope in maintenance, so that she can become independent and raise her
children on her own.
She has done everything that the court has asked of her. The first week of November she went to a hearing at which
time the recommendation was for transition to begin, for the return of the children to her. Unfortunately, at that
time her case was turned over to a new caseworker, Karen Richman in CPS (in the Everett office).
While Karen would tell my daughter that they were trying to reunite them, she would turn around and tell the foster
mother that the children would not be placed back with her until summer. When the foster mother would question
her about the discrepancy between what the foster mother and my daughter was being told, Karen simply told her
- Yes, I did tell her that, but it isn’t going to happen. All paperwork, including her court-ordered psychiatric
evaluation with Dr. Jack Reiter, her counseling sessions, the hearings that were being held, the guidelines my
daughter were following, where never turned over to her lawyer, Steve Curtis. Instead the paperwork stalled in
the CPS office.
After several weeks of having unsupervised weekend visits, Karen then stated that she was going to increase the
time the children where with my daughter as a final step in the transition. Then a week later she turned around
and cut back the time my daughter was allowed to be with them.
In the last few weeks, my daughter has received notice from DSHS that she was being discontinued from her medical
benefits, the reason being stated that no one in the house was qualified to receive them. This now leaves my daughter
with the inability to obtain the medication necessary to control her bipolar disorder.
Since the project through Housing Hope is for families, they cannot allow her to remain in her living quarters
for longer than six months without the children. The six months is up the end of this month. Karen Richman has
known this for the past month and has assured my daughter that the transition will be completed and she will have
the children back by that time. (When Karen was asked previously who her supervisor was due to dissatisfaction
in how the case was being handled, she responded that she did not have a supervisor.)
A hearing was set up for February 13. My daughter requested this hearing out of a feeling of insecurity that things
are being done properly to assure return of her children. On February 12 Karen called to let her know that she
had canceled this hearing.
In a discussion between my daughter and her lawyer's office on February 12, it was discovered that nothing has
been sent to him, leaving him with no documentation to present to the court. An assistant in the lawyer's office
stated that even if my daughter were to provide them with the documentation proving compliance on her part that
it was too late to get a court date set up. My daughter had been told in hearings that all paperwork was being
sent to the court, and she was under the impression that everything was being handled properly and that this would
not be a problem.
What we have in review is the fact that my daughter has been compliant in every way, she is stable on her medications,
she has housing for her and her children, she has a job through a training program that will allow her to work
and become independent and raise her children. The foster family over the previous five months has observed interactions
between my daughter and her children, and is willing to testify that these children are very closely bonded with
their mother and need her, and that they have a good relationship. On the other hand, we have DSHS who is cutting
her off from her medications, and CPS who is stonewalling the return of the children until it will be too late.
As of March 1 my daughter will not have housing, and therefore cannot get her children back. With the loss of the
housing, she also loses the ability to participate any longer in the training program, and will lose her job.
What that will leave is two small children who will be forced to remain in foster care, and a mother who has tried
so hard to finally be a family again but instead will be homeless, jobless, and without medication. I am afraid
further damage will be done to these children after the first of the month, when this foster family will no longer
be able to keep them, and they will have to go to a new home and start all over again.
I always believed that departments working for the welfare of children and families, i.e. DSHS and CPS, would do
what was necessary to reunite families whenever possible. Instead I have found just the opposite. Their actions,
or lack thereof, is destroying the possibility of reuniting this family, and there are two small children who are
going to pay a very high price for this. I find their handling of her case to be irresponsible and incompetent.
She has been misled almost every step of the way.
She has been told that it is too late to do anything about this, but we just cannot accept that. I am asking, please,
if there is anything anyone can do, please save this family. If I did not feel that it was in the best interest
of these children to be with their mother I would not be writing this letter, but in my heart I know she is ready
to be an outstanding mother. She needs assistance in keeping her medication, her housing and her job so that she
will be able to raise her children. The thought of having her children back is what has drove her to work so hard
in the previous five months, to be ready for this moment.
Everyone closely involved in this case agrees that my daughter is ready to have her children back, that the children
need to be with her for their further development, but no one is doing the paperwork to get this to happen in a
timely fashion. By the time someone finally gets around to doing their job and processing the necessary paperwork,
all the gains will be lost, and the opportunity she has been so kindly given by Project Hope for her and her children
have for a future will be gone.
If we are becoming a society that would allow such a thing to happen, what future lies ahead for the children?
Shirley DeFord
[email protected]