Department of Human Services v. C. M. E.

374 P.3d 969, 278 Or. App. 297, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 563
CourtClatsop County Circuit Court, Oregon
DecidedMay 11, 2016
Docket14JU01079; A160309
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 374 P.3d 969 (Department of Human Services v. C. M. E.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Clatsop County Circuit Court, Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Human Services v. C. M. E., 374 P.3d 969, 278 Or. App. 297, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 563 (Or. Super. Ct. 2016).

Opinion

GARRETT, J.

Mother appeals a judgment of the juvenile court changing the permanency plan for her child, M, from reunification to adoption.1 The juvenile court concluded that the Department of Human Services (DHS) had made reasonable efforts to reunify M with mother but that mother had not made sufficient progress to make it possible for M to safely return home. ORS 419B.476(2)(a). On appeal, mother challenges the juvenile court’s change of plan, arguing that (1) mother had made sufficient progress to allow M to safely return home, ORS 419B.476(2)(a), and, consequently, that a compelling reason existed for the court to decline to change the permanency plan, ORS 419B.498(2)(b)(A); (2) the bond between mother and M is a compelling reason to determine that a plan other than adoption would be in M’s best interests, ORS 419B.498(2)(b)(B); and (3) the failure by DHS to provide services to mother earlier in the dependency case is a reason to forgo implementing a permanency plan of adoption, ORS 419B.498(2)(c). DHS agrees with mother.2 We conclude that the juvenile court did not err by changing the permanency plan. Accordingly, we affirm.

No party requests that we engage in de novo review, nor do we perceive any reason to exercise our discretion to do so. See ORS 19.415(3)(b) (providing for discretionary de novo review in equitable actions); ORAP 5.40(8)(c) (de novo review is appropriate only in exceptional cases). We thus “view the evidence, as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the [juvenile] court’s disposition and assess whether, when so viewed, the record was legally sufficient to permit that outcome.” Dept. of Human Services v. N. P., 257 Or App 633, 639, 307 P3d 444 (2013). That is, our review

“[d]oes not allow us to substitute our assessment of the persuasiveness of the evidence for the juvenile court’s, nor does it allow us to revisit the juvenile court’s resolution of [300]*300factual disputes or its choice among reasonable inferences. Rather, * * * our function is limited to determining whether the evidence was sufficient to permit the challenged determination.”

Id. at 640.

We begin with a brief history of DHS’s involvement with mother and M. DHS removed M from mother’s care immediately after his birth in May 2007 and placed him in nonrelative foster care. At that time, mother was 18 years old and had substantial mental-health and substance-abuse problems. Thereafter, mother successfully engaged in services and established a support network—which included mother’s relatives as well as M’s foster parents—to monitor her parenting on an ongoing basis. M was returned to mother’s care, and, in 2010, the wardship of M was terminated. Subsequently, the foster parents maintained a close relationship with M.

During the next few years, DHS received several reports concerning mother’s parenting, although none resulted in formal DHS intervention. By 2013, however, DHS was notified that mother had stopped taking her mental-health medication, that her behavior was erratic, and that M’s school attendance was irregular. Despite numerous attempts by DHS to check on the family, mother denied access to providers and other members of her support network.

In April 2014, having obtained a warrant for mother’s arrest based on her failure to appear on a criminal mischief charge, police entered mother’s home; they observed unsanitary and unsafe living conditions, including rotting food and garbage on the floor, as well as numerous safety hazards. Mother was forcibly removed from the bathroom, where she had locked herself and M. After mother was taken into custody, M’s grandmother and her husband told police that mother had been off her medication for approximately one year and expressed their view that M should be placed in foster care with the foster parents.

On DHS’s petition, the juvenile court took jurisdiction over M in May 2014 on the grounds that (1) “[m] other’s [301]*301mental health problems interfere with her ability to provide minimally adequate care of the child, placing the child at risk of harm” and (2) “ [d] espite having participated in services designed to improve mother’s parenting skills, she is unable to safely parent the child, placing the child at risk of harm.” M was again placed in foster care with the foster parents.

For periods while she was in custody, mother refused to speak, bathe, or eat. After being diagnosed with, among other things, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mother was transferred to the psychiatric unit at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). After several months there, she was released to a residential treatment facility, Telecare, where a psychiatric assessment revealed a history of substance abuse, multiple traumas and self-harming behaviors, and frequent failure to take prescribed psychiatric medications. While at Telecare, mother struggled to maintain appropriate boundaries with staff and complained about lethargy due to her medications. Following her release from Telecare in November 2014, mother expressed her desire to engage in mental-health services and parenting classes, and she also asked to visit M.

At a December 2014 permanency hearing, M’s attorney and the court appointed special advocate (CASA) requested that the permanency plan be changed from reunification to adoption. The juvenile court determined that DHS had failed to make reasonable efforts to provide mother with services during the first seven months of the case—that is, the periods when mother was in jail, at OHSU, and at Telecare. Thus, the court declined to change the plan and scheduled the next permanency hearing for November 2015. At the request of M’s attorney, however, the juvenile court held an early permanency hearing on August 20, 2015.

At the August 20 hearing, the juvenile court was presented with the following evidence. In December 2014, mother received a psychological evaluation by Dr. Deitch, who had evaluated mother on two earlier occasions, in 2007 and 2008, to assess her capacity as a parenting resource for [302]*302M.3 The 2014 evaluation, submitted to the court as an exhibit, listed Deitch’s diagnoses of mother as including, among other things, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and mixed-personality disorder. Deitch observed that, as a result of mother’s severe mental-health issues, mother’s ability to provide minimally adequate care for M would depend on the consistency of her medication management, the maintenance of a strong support network, and consistency in attending therapy sessions. Deitch also observed that, “ [i] t appears as if [M] is used to taking care of himself (and even * * * mother),” and that it would be important for mother to develop a clear parental role.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
374 P.3d 969, 278 Or. App. 297, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-c-m-e-orccclatsop-2016.