18% of care orders issued in 2013 due to parents' substance abuse

18% of the care orders issued last year involved children whose parents were substance abusers. A total of 33 care orders were issued in 2013 alone, with substance abuse featuring in at least six of the cases.

Last year, 27 children and young persons were placed in foster care and as at December 2013, a total of 239 children were fostered.

Children placed in foster care include newborns and toddlers who tested positive to hard drugs due to the mothers’ abuse of substance during pregnancy.

Helping a baby detox from hard drugs can be a very slow and challenging task, especially since the baby is born with low birth weight and can suffer from withdrawal symptoms and spasms.

“I took in Zak* when he was just three weeks old, weighing 5lbs, when he came to me straight out of hospital. The first three weeks were spent in detox and withdrawal from the drugs his mother took during pregnancy. The drugs affected him dreadfully for the first nine months of his life,” a foster carer told MaltaToday.

Zak, now 18 months old, was so small he could fit across her forearm.

The carer explained how Zak’s first four months were spent in a baby carrier strapped to her to help him through the withdrawal.

“It was hell – to watch his body shake, spasm and convulse. We lived in near-darkness, slowly weaning him into light and sound and eventually, he came through,” the foster carer added.

The family also fosters two four-year-old girls, who at the time were two years old, and one who is nine months old.

To teach him things which tend to come naturally to children – such as reacting to something – the foster mum had to guide Zak through the entire process, including getting down on the floor and teaching him how to hold his head up. She built contraptions to strengthen his muscles, forcing him to use both arms instead of favouring one.

“I even had to teach him how to crawl,” she said, proudly adding that Zak has passed his last assessment with flying colours and punching above his age.

“He is actually hitting targets we never ever thought he would get to.”

When a child is placed in foster care, the goal is to provide the girl or the boy with a safe, nurturing family who seek to address and fulfil the child’s needs. According to Agenzija Appogg’s Fostering Service, only if it is in the best of the child, does the child return to the natural family. A social worker helps with the reintegration and the transition of the child from the foster family to the natural family is planned “so as to terminate the relationship between the child and the foster carers”.

This, however, is easier said than done.

When Zak’s foster mum took in his two foster sisters, she never intended on starting another family. Like Zak, the girls were sent to her care when they were newborns, ‘drug babies’ too. The girls are now four years of age and have been living with her ever since.

A draft law on children who live in out-of-home care proposes the introduction of permanent foster care, aimed at giving more stability to children whose chances of being reintegrated with their biological parents are non-existent.

“This will help guarantee the children their much-needed security base,” president of the National Foster Care Association Malta (NFCAM) Jason Zerafa said.

Fostered children become one with the fostering family and a firm bond is secured between the two. At the same time, there are the natural parents who would want their child back once their personal difficult situation has been resolved.

The Children and Young Persons Advisory Board, which is independent of Agenzija Appogg, holds regular sittings where the child’s care plan is presented and discussed with the persons involved in the child’s life.

The Board also makes recommendations as to whether contact with the birth families should be made.

In certain cases, children would have not seen their parents in months or years and, if they were babies when the care order was issued, they wouldn’t even know who their parents are.

Part of the job of a foster care parent is to facilitate these reconnections: showing pictures, teaching the child the difference between the foster family and the natural family and facilitating a reunion if the Board decides on it.

The law states that a child must have contact with the biological parents. But how do you explain that to an 18-month old child who has not seen the parents in seven months? And how do you explain that to a four-year-old child whose birth parents miss contact sessions?

It is not the first time that foster carers have reported being harassed by the biological parents, including threats. There are also instances where foster carers feel that contact with biological parents is having detrimental effect on the child.

According to family and child law expert Ann Marie Mangion, this should be reported to Appogg so that it can review and propose amendments to the terms of the foster agreement.

“The right of contact with the biological parents is a fundamental human right pertaining to each child which is found in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Mangion said.

Article 9(3) of the Convention also argues that this contact should be made as long as it is in the best interests of the child.

“Therefore, if it is not in the best interest of the child, such contact should not be kept. These are cases of extreme sensitivity and therefore, the necessary caution should be taken,” she said.

Jason Zerafa insists that contact sessions between the child and the biological parents should be done by highly well-trained supervisors who are of a certain mature age.

“It is surely not acceptable that in order to make the biological parents happy, access to the children is given without prioritising a child’s wellbeing,” he said.

Having said that, Zerafa added that the Children and Young Persons Advisory Board “see the whole picture of a particular situation and have the ability to decide what’s best for the child”.

He however called for clear policies and guidelines to be implemented by Appogg in order to have a seamless service. “As things stand today, we are encountering conflicting decisions from Appogg which surely impact negatively the children in question and the respective foster carers.”

Although the permanent foster care proposed does not exclude contact with biological parents, Zerafa said it is high time the state reviewed the type of contact these children should have.

“We also need to see the readiness of the child when contact is suggested… where contact does not necessarily mean meeting face-to-face.

“We have to keep in mind that some children may have passed through verbal, sexual and physical abuse and therefore contact, for example, could also be made by phone of via a Skype collection, always supervised.”

*Names have been changed