CPS Post Audit is a new blog tracking Kansas child welfare legislation and related topics.

It is vital to know about upcoming CPS child welfare legislation in your state if you want to help stop CPS injustice.

I would love to see a blog similar to this one created for all fifty states. Keep an eye on those state legislators and make sure they know what your issues are!

From the inception of the FightCPS.Com site in October, 2000, I was aware of North Carolina CPS abuses and always have thought of North Carolina as one of the most corrupt states (for child welfare) in our country. This impression comes because there have been many North Carolina residents online complaining about child welfare injustice there, whereas for other states like North Dakota or West Virginia, you rarely meet anyone with a complaint.

For example, the Candace case: A five-year-old girl was ripped from her loving mother because mom couldn’t find a ride to go pick her up from Head Start on time one day. Candace was adopted out to a nurse practitioner who took her to Colorado for “rebirthing therapy”… which caused Candace’s death at the age of ten.

Now another ten year old child needs to be rescued from North Carolina’s child welfare industry. He belongs in the state of Texas and his father has court documents to prove it. But North Carolina not only won’t let go of Joshua William Smith, they seem to be hiding this child. The full story is on the Stop Corrupt DSS blog. Here’s the link: Where is Joshua William Smith?

I just connected with Shauna D. Robinson on Twitter and discovered her new Ning group, Colorado’s Children. I’m pretty excited about it.

What a great venue for a family rights advocacy and support group! I would love to see Ning groups for each state. I use Ning with a few groups connected to my work on Squidoo.Com and love the versatility and ease of setup. Shauna’s group shows some of the great Ning functions such as video presentation, blogging, a forum, and a community photo slide show.

Good show, Shauna!

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If you have a site you’d like to have featured here on FightCPS, please let me know. My email link is at the bottom of this page.

An Arkansas woman has been arrested, ostensibly for burning a child with a cigarette. The charge was made by a physician, but a second physician diagnosed the sore as a staph infection.

See: Arkansas Mother ARRESTED after Protecting Children from Foster Care

The father’s letter has been posted on the web: Response from Suzanne McHenry’s Husband.

More information on Facebook: Suzanne and Calvin McHenry Support Group.
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Please get a Twitter account and follow family rights bloggers: FU4 Child Rights, Amiablyme, and FightCPS.

Here’s an attorney explaining how to organize case documentation. Organizing notes this way may be helpful to any attorney you consider hiring.

To subscribe to this attorney’s account, go to Accused Falsely. He has other videos there that may be of interest to you.

Want to read something that will touch your heart?

Check out this new website: Life of a Foster Kid - Foster care in a child’s eyes written by teens, for teens. Click on “My Story” in the side column to read how his life was torn apart by child protective services social workers.

If you’re a teenager you can join the site and share your story with site manager, Jonathan Nickols.

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If you have a site you’d like to have featured here on FightCPS, please let me know. My email link is at the bottom of this page.

Post here if you need a CPS defense lawyer - June 2009

People who need CPS defense lawyers can post their information here…

If you post an email address to be contacted, please post it in this format:
yourname - at - yourdomain.com . . . this will prevent spammers from stealing your email address and innundating you with unwanted emails.

Please note: This does not guarantee that anyone will ever contact you. Lawyers are free to scan the postings to this page, and if they are interested in representing you, can contact you directly. This website doesn’t have the manpower to match people with lawyers, and there’s no money here for paying lawyers for you. Also please remember that most lawyers are not interested in doing pro-bono work. You will probably need to agree to some kind of payment obligation to get an attorney to work for you.

<b>Please read before posting:</b>

If you have a court appointed attorney, read:
<a href=”http://fightcps.com/2007/08/20/make-your-court-appointed-attorney-work-for-you/” title=”Make Your Court-Appointed Attorney Work For YOU”>Make Your Court-Appointed Attorney Work For YOU</a>

Check out this page:
<a href=”http://fightcps.com/2007/08/10/lawyers-who-take-cps-defense-cases/” title=”Lawyers who take CPS defense cases”>Lawyers who take CPS defense cases</a> - but do NOT post there unless you’re a lawyer accepting CPS cases, or someone recommending a CPS defense lawyer.

[Note: sorry these pages are late this month; I need to automate them like I did last year . . .]

This is the guestbook for June 2009. You’re welcome to tell us about yourself and why you’re here.

If you want feedback on your case, register at the <a href=”http://forum.fightcps.com”>Fight CPS Message Forum</a> where there are advocates and activists waiting to hear from you. Please note it may take 10 to 48 hours to get your message board account approved. We need to approve them all individually.

[Note: sorry these pages are late this month; I need to automate them like I did last year . . .]

This is the place for Fight CPS prayer requests during June 2009. Click the comments link below to make a request for prayer.

FightCPS is an interfaith site and is not aligned with any particular religion, political party, or organization.

FightCPS is intended for <u>all</u> families needing support and information to fight false allegations of child abuse or neglect.

It is acknowledged that many people find help by appealing to a higher power.

[Note: sorry these pages are late this month; I need to automate them like I did last year . . .]

FightCPS now has a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/fightcps.

If you are on Twitter, you’re welcome to leave your link in the comments here.

I received this in email:

Mother’s Day has been sad for me for years now. Without fail I always think of caring parents who are suffering because their children are being kept from them. Then I remember the years when my two oldest daughters lived with their father and I never, ever heard anything from them on Mother’s Day… nor did they want to talk to me at any other time. The youngest still has Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) though now she’s 28 years old. She refuses to communicate with me and thinks I’m a really, really, really bad person. (My oldest daughter recovered and realized she’d been brainwashed.)

I know a lot of you are thinking, “When my child is eighteen he/she will come see me again.” But for many of the sad, suffering parents, that never happens because of PAS.

(More about PAS/Read: What is the child’s part in PAS?)

So… for those of us with children in foster care or adoptive homes, or living with another family member or an ex-spouse… for those of us who never get to hear “Happy Mother’s Day” from their much loved children… I have a few suggestions.

1. Love yourself. Seriously, if your child won’t express love to you, find reasons to love yourself anyway. All human beings are born to be inherently lovable, and you’re one of them. Take time today to list your good qualities and praise yourself for them.

2. Here’s something that cheered me up back then when my daughters weren’t calling me. I found a big Mother’s Day ad/announcement/appreciation printed in the Oakland Tribune, and cut it out and put it on the refrigerator. It was cheerful and it really made me feel better even though it didn’t come from the two children I wanted to hear from. Those of you blessed with artistic creativity can probably get the same effect by making a card for yourself.

3. Pray for the children. They are victims just as we are. While it is true they probably aren’t calling because they don’t remember or realize it is a special day, it is also true that their handlers (whoever controls them) aren’t going to remind them to call as any truly decent person would. This isn’t your child’s fault. They are being trained to be disrespectful to their mother and to treat her like dirt. They get good reactions from the people they live with whenever they are cruel towards us.

4. Take a walk today and look at all the flowers blooming. Clear your mind from the sad thoughts and remember that life renews itself and there’s plenty to love about being alive in this world.

5. Don’t quit living, learning, and growing. You’ve had a terrible shock, and are living with trauma. But don’t let that destroy your life. Look toward your own interests and hobbies. Do things that make you happy. It is all about self-care. Yes, the thing you wanted to do (mothering) was cruelly ripped from your arms and your heart will hurt over this for many years to come… but we must learn to live with the trauma and recover from it. And we must use the time away from our children to do good things for ourselves.

A big hug from me to all suffering, lonely, traumatized mothers on this Mother’s Day 2009.

I received this email from Greg Smart of “No More Family InJustice”. He is working to build a nationwide organization for victims of CPS false accusations.

Just a reminder… there’s a request by the owner of another family rights website for letters to be sent to President Obama and his wife. Here’s what I received in email:

This is the guestbook for May 2008. This thread is closed to new comments.

If you want feedback on your case, register at the <a href=”http://forum.fightcps.com”>Fight CPS Message Forum</a> where there are advocates and activists waiting to hear from you. Please note it may take 10 to 48 hours to get your message board account approved. We need to approve them all individually.

Note: This thread is closed to new comments. Please refer to the <a href=”http://fightcps.com/cps/fight-cps-website/guestbooks/”>most recent guestbook thread</a> to leave your message.

People who need CPS defense lawyers <s>can post their information here</s>…

Please post on the most recent page of <a href=”http://fightcps.com/cps/lawyers-needed/”>lawyer requests</a>.

If you post an email address to be contacted, please post it in this format:
yourname - at - yourdomain.com . . . this will prevent spammers from stealing your email address and innundating you with unwanted emails.

Please note: This does not guarantee that anyone will ever contact you. Lawyers are free to scan the postings to this page, and if they are interested in representing you, can contact you directly. This website doesn’t have the manpower to match people with lawyers, and there’s no money here for paying lawyers for you. Also please remember that most lawyers are not interested in doing pro-bono work. You will probably need to agree to some kind of payment obligation to get an attorney to work for you.

Please read before posting:

If you have a court appointed attorney, read:
Make Your Court-Appointed Attorney Work For YOU

Check out this page:
Lawyers who take CPS defense cases - but do NOT post there unless you’re a lawyer accepting CPS cases, or someone recommending a CPS defense lawyer.

This is the place for Fight CPS prayer requests during May 2009. Please refer to the <a href=”http://fightcps.com/cps/fight-cps-website/prayer-requests/”>most recent prayer requests page</a> to leave your request.

FightCPS is an interfaith/secular site and is not aligned with any particular religion, political party, or organization. FightCPS is intended for all families needing support and information to fight false allegations of child abuse or neglect.

There’s a lively discussion going on at the Sacramento Bee’s most recent article in their CPS article archive. Look for the title: Court file details CPS ‘Vendetta’… published on April 20. The comment section is worth reading.

Thanks to Sam for emailing me the link!

You can look for this at The Library of Congress Website for more information. It was passed by the House on March 30 and now is being considered by the Senate.

Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)

HR 20 EH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

AN ACT

To provide for research on, and services for individuals with, postpartum depression and psychosis.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act’ or the `Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act’.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

For purposes of this Act–

(1) the term `postpartum condition’ means postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis; and

(2) the term `Secretary’ means the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

TITLE I–RESEARCH ON POSTPARTUM CONDITIONS

SEC. 101. EXPANSION AND INTENSIFICATION OF ACTIVITIES.

(a) Continuation of Activities- The Secretary is encouraged to continue activities on postpartum conditions.

(b) Programs for Postpartum Conditions- In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary is encouraged to continue research to expand the understanding of the causes of, and treatments for, postpartum conditions. Activities under such subsection shall include conducting and supporting the following:

(1) Basic research concerning the etiology and causes of the conditions.

(2) Epidemiological studies to address the frequency and natural history of the conditions and the differences among racial and ethnic groups with respect to the conditions.

(3) The development of improved screening and diagnostic techniques.

(4) Clinical research for the development and evaluation of new treatments.

(5) Information and education programs for health care professionals and the public, which may include a coordinated national campaign to increase the awareness and knowledge of postpartum conditions. Activities under such a national campaign may–

(A) include public service announcements through television, radio, and other means; and

(B) focus on–

(i) raising awareness about screening;

(ii) educating new mothers and their families about postpartum conditions to promote earlier diagnosis and treatment; and

(iii) ensuring that such education includes complete information concerning postpartum conditions, including its symptoms, methods of coping with the illness, and treatment resources.

SEC. 102. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF RELATIVE MENTAL HEALTH CONSEQUENCES FOR WOMEN OF RESOLVING A PREGNANCY.

(a) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health may conduct a nationally representative longitudinal study (during the period of fiscal years 2009 through 2018) of the relative mental health consequences for women of resolving a pregnancy (intended and unintended) in various ways, including carrying the pregnancy to term and parenting the child, carrying the pregnancy to term and placing the child for adoption, miscarriage, and having an abortion. This study may assess the incidence, timing, magnitude, and duration of the immediate and long-term mental health consequences (positive or negative) of these pregnancy outcomes.

(b) Report- Beginning not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and periodically thereafter for the duration of the study, such Director may prepare and submit to the Congress reports on the findings of the study.

TITLE II–DELIVERY OF SERVICES REGARDING POSTPARTUM CONDITIONS

SEC. 201. ESTABLISHMENT OF GRANT PROGRAM.

Subpart I of part D of title III of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 330G the following:

`SEC. 330G-1. SERVICES TO INDIVIDUALS WITH A POSTPARTUM CONDITION AND THEIR FAMILIES.

`(a) In General- The Secretary may make grants to eligible entities for projects for the establishment, operation, and coordination of effective and cost-efficient systems for the delivery of essential services to individuals with a postpartum condition and their families.

`(b) Certain Activities- To the extent practicable and appropriate, the Secretary shall ensure that projects funded under subsection (a) provide education and services with respect to the diagnosis and management of postpartum conditions. The Secretary may allow such projects to include the following:

`(1) Delivering or enhancing outpatient and home-based health and support services, including case management and comprehensive treatment services for individuals with or at risk for postpartum conditions, and delivering or enhancing support services for their families.

`(2) Delivering or enhancing inpatient care management services that ensure the well-being of the mother and family and the future development of the infant.

`(3) Improving the quality, availability, and organization of health care and support services (including transportation services, attendant care, homemaker services, day or respite care, and providing counseling on financial assistance and insurance) for individuals with a postpartum condition and support services for their families.

`(4) Providing education to new mothers and, as appropriate, their families about postpartum conditions to promote earlier diagnosis and treatment. Such education may include–

`(A) providing complete information on postpartum conditions, symptoms, methods of coping with the illness, and treatment resources; and

`(B) in the case of a grantee that is a State, hospital, or birthing facility–

`(i) providing education to new mothers and fathers, and other family members as appropriate, concerning postpartum conditions before new mothers leave the health facility; and

`(ii) ensuring that training programs regarding such education are carried out at the health facility.

`(c) Integration With Other Programs- To the extent practicable and appropriate, the Secretary may integrate the grant program under this section with other grant programs carried out by the Secretary, including the program under section 330.

`(d) Certain Requirements- A grant may be made under this section only if the applicant involved makes the following agreements:

`(1) Not more than 5 percent of the grant will be used for administration, accounting, reporting, and program oversight functions.

`(2) The grant will be used to supplement and not supplant funds from other sources related to the treatment of postpartum conditions.

`(3) The applicant will abide by any limitations deemed appropriate by the Secretary on any charges to individuals receiving services pursuant to the grant. As deemed appropriate by the Secretary, such limitations on charges may vary based on the financial circumstances of the individual receiving services.

`(4) The grant will not be expended to make payment for services authorized under subsection (a) to the extent that payment has been made, or can reasonably be expected to be made, with respect to such services–

`(A) under any State compensation program, under an insurance policy, or under any Federal or State health benefits program; or

`(B) by an entity that provides health services on a prepaid basis.

`(5) The applicant will, at each site at which the applicant provides services funded under subsection (a), post a conspicuous notice informing individuals who receive the services of any Federal policies that apply to the applicant with respect to the imposition of charges on such individuals.

`(6) For each grant period, the applicant will submit to the Secretary a report that describes how grant funds were used during such period.

`(e) Technical Assistance- The Secretary may provide technical assistance to entities seeking a grant under this section in order to assist such entities in complying with the requirements of this section.

`(f) Definitions- In this section:

`(1) The term `eligible entity’ means a public or nonprofit private entity, which may include a State or local government; a public or nonprofit private recipient of a grant under section 330H (relating to the Healthy Start Initiative), public-private partnership, hospital, community-based organization, hospice, ambulatory care facility, community health center, migrant health center, public housing primary care center, or homeless health center; or any other appropriate public or nonprofit private entity.

`(2) The term `postpartum condition’ means postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis.’.

TITLE III–GENERAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 301. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

To carry out this Act and the amendment made by section 201, there are authorized to be appropriated, in addition to such other sums as may be available for such purpose–

(1) $3,000,000 for fiscal year 2010; and

(2) such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.

SEC. 302. REPORT BY THE SECRETARY.

(a) Study- The Secretary shall conduct a study on the benefits of screening for postpartum conditions.

(b) Report- Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall complete the study required by subsection (a) and submit a report to the Congress on the results of such study.

SEC. 303. LIMITATION.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or the amendment made by section 201, the Secretary may not utilize amounts made available under this Act or such amendment to carry out activities or programs that are duplicative of activities or programs that are already being carried out through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Passed the House of Representatives March 30, 2009.