In the Int. of A.N.S., Appeal of: T.S.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 25, 2024
Docket1432 WDA 2023
StatusUnpublished

This text of In the Int. of A.N.S., Appeal of: T.S. (In the Int. of A.N.S., Appeal of: T.S.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Int. of A.N.S., Appeal of: T.S., (Pa. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

J-A09045-24

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

IN THE INTEREST OF: A.N.S., A : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF MINOR : PENNSYLVANIA : : APPEAL OF: T.S., MOTHER : : : : : No. 1432 WDA 2023

Appeal from the Order Entered November 3, 2023 In the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County Juvenile Division at No(s): Docket No. CP-7-DP-00056-2023, FID: 7-FN-00031-2023

BEFORE: DUBOW, J., KUNSELMAN, J., and NICHOLS, J.

MEMORANDUM BY NICHOLS, J.: FILED: July 25, 2024

T.S. (Mother) appeals from the order granting the petition filed by Blair

County Children, Youth & Families (the Agency) and adjudicating A.N.S.

(Child) dependent. Mother argues that the trial court erred in granting the

Agency’s petition, placing Child in foster care, and declining to allow Mother

in-person visitation with Child. We affirm.

By way of background, the family has been in contact with the Agency

and receiving services since 2019. See N.T. Hr’g, 7/21/23, at 3. Specifically,

the record reflects:

Between 10/07/2019 and 03/10/2023, [the Agency] received eight (8) different general protective services (GPS) referrals for the family alleging the following concerns: sexual assault, [Mother] being involuntarily hospitalized (302),[1] domestic violence (broken furnishings had been observed in the home), ____________________________________________

1 See 50 P.S. § 7302. J-A09045-24

[Mother’s] erratic behaviors, and [Child’s] truancy during the COVID-19 pandemic. All eight (8) of the incidences were screened out due to unsubstantiated concerns, forwarded to local law enforcement (LEO) for them to investigate, or closed during the assessment phase of the case because the initial validated concerns had since been alleviated.

The family has been involved with the following services in the past and/or currently: Home Nursing Agency (HNA) case management (Mother has gone through about 4 case managers herself due to her lack of consistency and failure to follow through), Evolution Counseling (for the past 4 years, approximately), mental health counseling through Primary Health Network (PHN), Suboxone treatment, family-based counseling (just recently), and Altoona Cyber Academy ([C]hild was most recently in the 6th grade). In previous conversations that caseworkers had with [Mother], she described that she and [Child] had a significant history of trauma (including sexual abuse).

Additionally, [Mother] alleged that she had been previously diagnosed with ADHD/ADD, Agoraphobia, Panic Attacks/Anxiety, and Severe Depression, and [Child] had been diagnosed with PTSD, Separation Anxiety, and ADHD (for which [C]hild is receiving prescribed medication through ACRP). Allegedly, [Child] was also receiving psychiatric services as well, but [C]hild was discharged after several late arrivals or “no shows” for scheduled appointments. Furthermore, [Mother] had recently cancelled her and [Child’s] necessary medication management appointments, and [Child] was desperately in need of refills.

Dependency Pet., 7/14/23, at 6.2

On July 10, 2023, the Agency received a GPS report stating that there

were ongoing concerns regarding Mother’s mental health. See Dependency

Pet., 7/14/23, at 6. That same day, Judge Ilissa Zimmerman granted

emergency protective custody to the Agency and placed Child into foster care.

See id. at 8. ____________________________________________

2 We note that the parties stipulated to the contents of the dependency petition at the dispositional hearing. See N.T. Hr’g, 7/21/23, at 2.

-2- J-A09045-24

The Agency filed a dependency petition on July 14, 2023. Therein, the

Agency alleged that Child was without proper care or parental control due to

concerns regarding Mother’s mental health. See id. at 6-7. Specifically, the

petition stated:

[Mother] has already been diagnosed with schizophrenia . . . and the 7/10/2023 GPS referral was the [third] such referral that the Agency had received concerning the currently poor state of [Mother’s] mental health.

[Child] has sporadically stayed with a friend, Nanette Williams, sometimes as long as up to 1 month--when [Mother] was acting paranoid and/or admitted for a psychiatric hospitalization. During these time periods when [Mother] was struggling with her mental health, [Mother] was unable to provide [Child] with a nurturing environment or a consistent schedule.

[Mother] recently threw away [Child’s] mattress and other belongings, and the police responded to the home during one of [Mother’s] manic episodes (unknown outcome).

Service providers had observed that, as of late: 1) [Mother] did not appear to be herself as she was “distant” (had a flat affect); 2) [Mother] was mumbling her words and was unable to complete her thoughts/sentence[s]: and 3) [Mother] was also seen retreating into her bedroom often, sitting on the edge of her bed talking to herself, and laughing as if someone or something was amusing, however, no one was there with her.

[Mother] recently reported that her home caught on fire; however, this was determined to be false when firefighters and the police responded on scene to the home (she blamed it on the dishwasher appliance).

A domestic violence situation had occurred in the family’s home over the weekend prior. More specifically, it was reported that [Mother] had been arguing with her paramour, Christopher Harf, over the past few days primarily because she believed that he had been cheating on her (among a variety of other issues).

As a result of the recent trauma in the home caused by the family infighting, [Mother] took [Child] (age 12) to CRISIS on or about

-3- J-A09045-24

07/07/2023 where [Child] was subsequently diagnosed with depression, received treatment, and then discharged home.

As a result of the above GPS referral, the caseworker met with [Mother] and [Child] on 7/10/2023.

During the meeting with the family, [Mother] stated that there was a supposed robbery of her and [Child’s] prescribed medication, and there were concerns that [Mother] may have given [Child] double (2x) the amount of her prescribed medication (Concerta & Buspar) as she did not recall giving them to [C]hild already (the Agency later discovered that a pill count of [C]hild’s medication was “short” and a refill would be required).

Additionally, [Agency] caseworkers had observed [Mother] acting paranoid and constantly throwing away drinks in the home because she claimed that her boyfriend, Christopher, was trying to poison her (she alleged that the drinks tasted “funny”). [Mother] also made comments about her mail being tampered with. [Agency] caseworkers determined that [Mother] had viable reasons for her strange actions, but her explanations became more bizarre in nature when further discussions were had with [Mother].

Moreover, it was unclear whether [Mother] was following through with her mental health appointments, case management, and service providers’ recommendations.

When the [Agency] caseworker interviewed [Child] on 7/10/2023, [Child] stated that she was miserable on a daily basis while in the care of [M]other, and the caseworker observed that [Child] was noticeably “shaking and trembling.” In addition, [Child] had told her service providers/treatment team that she was scared to be left alone with [M]other. The caseworker also observed that [Child] seemed to be highly “parentified” for her young age (12). [Child] has described that she clearly loves [M]other, but [C]hild stated that she would like to stay somewhere else until [Mother] can get further help for her mental health.

As a result of the above, [Mother] was asked about possible placement of [Child] outside the home.

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