Parents Are Teachers, Too (PATT) is a home visiting program for first-time parents offering information and support. It is part of a network of home visiting sites across the state. Home visits are offered at the parent's convenience and tailored to each family's needs. Enrollment must take place by the time the child is three months of age or within three months of arrival for adoptive families. For more information, check out the Home Visiting www.mainefamilies.com .

AFFM recently spoke with Pam LaHaye, who is the coordinator for the "Parents are Teachers Too," a home visiting program that's part of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service in Waldo County. In addition to sharing information about the program, she also gave AFFM an example of how the program helped one family with their newly adopted daughter.

According to LaHaye, a family who had previously participated in the PATT program with their first child later adopted a one-year-old child through an international adoption agency. As a newborn infant, the child had been abandoned and placed in an orphanage where she spent the majority of her day alone in a crib. She was later placed with a foster family, but formed little attachment with her foster parents.

The child was placed with her adoptive family when she was just over a year old. Her parents found that the child cried whenever she was separated from them during the day and would not let her mother out of her sight. She also cried much of the night, wanting to be held. The family's adoption caseworker advised the parents to let the baby cry; their physician also said that the baby would need to just work though the crying. The mother did not agree with or want to follow this advice, noting to the PATT home visitor that the child seem to regress when they let her cry it out, and that she would then exhibit even greater anxiety about separating from her parents.

After talking with the mother and providing her with information concerning the issues of bonding and attachment, the home visitor encouraged her to trust her own instincts as to the best way to nurture her child. Several ideas were then developed to help
increase the child's sense of security and to promote her attachment to her new family. The family began to treat her in many ways as a newborn, with lots of holding and prompt response to any distress. Although advised by others not to allow her to sleep in the same room, the PATT home visitor supported the parents in the decision to keep her with them in their room at night in her own little bed. During the day, they also often "wore her," using a baby carrier. Gradually, the little girl's anxiety lessened, allowing her to begin to trust and attach to her new family.

AFFM concludes its series on private agencies with this article submitted by Meg Callaway from Care Development.

Care Development is a young corporation. Beginning eight years ago as a small, local treatment foster care program with fewer than a dozen homes, Care has grown to include three separate agencies in three states. The local agency, Care Development of Maine, has expanded to include two thriving residential programs, a small adoption program, and community family support program. Care Maine now spans the state with ten regional office sites, serving well over two hundred children.

Many of the faces of Care are those of children separated from their birth families, hoping to return home with the support of intensive treatment services and active reunification plans. Michael was one of these children only a few years ago. He lived with the same foster family from the age of two-and-a-half to almost seven. Over several tough years, his mother Donna worked with DHS and Care staff to make the changes that would allow Michael and two brothers to safely return to her care. She now works for an adult care agency and has volunteered to be a member of the DHS Child Advisory Council. Her oldest son will finish his first year of college this spring.

Some of the faces of Care are young teens living at ADAM House, a female residential program based on a strength-based empowerment model. Staff members encourage residents to participate actively in decisions that affect their care and home environment, a process that promotes self-reliance, healthy relationships, and independent living skills. Several recent graduates of the program are now attending college and vocational programs, and a couple of former residents have returned to visit Care with their own children whom they are successfully parenting.

Care's adoption program has found permanent homes for over sixty-five special needs children since 1998. The program focuses on finding Maine families for Maine youth, and will now be providing post-adoption services as well. A twelve-year-old boy placed through Care arrived at the office with his mom one afternoon on his legalization anniversary date. He was bearing a wide smile and an armful of roses for his adoption worker. The note attached read: "Megan, Thank you for helping me. I could not have done it without you."

Care prides itself on working with a community of committed and progressive foster parents and employees. A number of Care's foster parents have shown exceptional ability to join with birth family members in working toward reunification and kinship care. This winter, a birth mom spent the night in her children's foster home to share Christmas Eve and morning with them. One young boy's foster parents hung with him through an emotionally turbulent transition from their home to kinship care with his grandparents three and a half hours from where they lived. They made the long trip to the grandparents' home weekly with their foster son, accompanied by Care staff, to help this family work through their adjustment to the new living situation. These visits included contact with his birth mother who would be living nearby with two of his younger siblings. He has been back home now for almost two years and is doing well.

Nancy Cole from Augusta is another exceptional foster parent. She and her husband Dale have successfully nurtured a number of children from foster care to reunification and adoption. For the last five months, Nancy reached beyond her familiar experiences as a foster parent to provide constant care for critically ill infant, driving daily from her family farm near Augusta to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where her tiny foster son struggled to survive major medical complications. Her tender care allowed him to attach and grow remarkably strong, despite the sadly impossible odds he faced. As Nancy now grieves the loss of this special child's short life, she continues to have room in her heart and home to foster more children who need her and her family. This level of commitment to children, even in the face of such discouraging odds, is the spirit of Care Maine.

People can call Care Development toll-free at 888-236-2273, check out their web site www.caredev.org or E-mail info@caredev.org.

When the Grandkids Come to Stay: How Maine Supports Families.

Come join a conversation with other relatives, agency staff, legislators and policy makers about how Maine does and does not support families. This program is sponsored by the University of Maine Relatives As Parents Program (RAPP). It will be in Augusta at the UMA campus in Jewett Hall on Friday, March 26, 2004 from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm. The public forum is from 9:00 to 11:00 and the Resource Fair runs from 11:00 to 12:00. For more information, call Sandy Butler at 581-2382.

AFFM recently received some information from NACAC that will be helpful for children who run away. Runaway Hotlines can help children, even those over 18. If you notify police and file a missing persons report with the Runaway Hotlines across the country, along with the police at the location where the child is found, they will make arrangements to get the child free transportation back home on Greyhound (even if the child is too old to be listed as a runaway). You can also order a credit card sized card that the child can keep in their wallet to call a Youth Hotline or Runaway Hotline.

The US Senate is voting this week on its proposed budget resolution - the first legislative step in setting federal budget parameters for the coming years which will affect state Medicaid programs. The resolution proposes cutting Medicaid by at least $11 billion over five years. If these budget cuts concern you in any way, please contact your state or federal representatives.