Quality Time in a Safe Environment

Quality Time in a Safe Environment

After criminal charges for her substance abuse, Angie was referred to Harmony House for supervised visitations with her children. She had several pending trials and was just getting sober. She and the children’s father did not get along and were constantly in court fighting over custody.

Visitations started off with quite a few conversations needing re-directions and there were a few times that the children did not want to see Angie because she would talk negatively about the courts and their Dad.  Although Angie struggled with her sobriety she expressed she always felt better when she got to see her children. Slowly, but surely she made progress towards sobriety and she completed her court-ordered treatment plans. The children saw the difference in their mom too; they said she looked happier with each passing week. Angie was quick to reinforce that the children were the source of her happiness.
After about 8 months of supervised visits, the family transitioned to monitored visitations with occasional check-ins during visits by a case manager. Dad told the case management team that he was so grateful for Harmony House’s services and that he was happy that Angie and the kids were getting quality time in a safe environment. After a few months, the family worked out a plan to moved to unsupervised time using exchange services.
By using a stair-stepped approach to services, Angie gained more time with her kids and worked up to overnight parenting time. The family still uses Harmony House’s exchange services, but Mom and Dad have grown in their co-parenting relationship and are beginning the transition to towards 50/50 shared custody and will successfully end services with our program.
*Names and identifying information has been changed to protect the confidentiality of the family.