Mоther appeals the family court’s determination that her infant son, G.C., is a child in need of care or supervision (CHINS). We affirm.
Mother suffers from chronic mental illness, described by her doctors as including borderline personality disorder, disassociative identification disorder, and major recurrent depression. Psychiatrists agreе that mother’s illness is the result of extreme physical, sexual, and emotional abuse that she endured as a small child and throughout her developmental years at the hands of her father and other close relatives. Treatment for mother’s illness includes psychotherapy and various medications aimed at combating her anxiety, depression, and delusional thinking.
In 1988, mother and her daughters, then aged one and four, were living with mother’s parents, including her abusive father. During that period, the younger daughter was hospitalized on a number of occasions because of excessive vomiting. The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Serviсes (SRS) filed a CHINS petition, alleging that mother had induced the vomiting by giving the child a drug called Ipecac, and further had disconnected and put pin holes in the child’s feeding tube at the hospital. Mother stipulated to a CHINS adjudication with respect to G.C. and to a finding that she suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP), a mental illness chаracterized by creating illnesses in one’s children to gain attention for oneself. In 1989, the family court terminated mother’s parental rights with respect to her daughters.
Over the ensuing ten years, mother took advantage of significant mental health services and made progress in recognizing and dealing with her mental and emotiоnal problems. Nevertheless, she continued to suffer relapses and was hospitalized periodically throughout that period. Between 1992 and 1999, mother had at least seventy contacts with police, many of them concerning threats or attempts to commit suicide. Mother’s longest period of stability without intervention lasted only a matter of days. A long-term client of Washington County Mental Health (WCMH), mother relied on the center’s support in making her living arrangements over the years.
Sometime in 1998, after discovering that she was pregnant with G.C., mother began lobbying the staff at WCMH to help her find a foster home that would provide twenty-four-hour-a-day supрort for her and her new baby. After advertising through the newspaper and interviewing potential candidates, mother and WCMH’s support team set up a foster-care arrangement with a couple who had been licensed foster parents for the previous five years. The couple had five children of their own ranging in age from five to twenty-five. Under the arrangement set up by WCMH, mother would move in with the couple a month or so before the baby was born, and the couple would provide support for her and the baby after the birth. Mother began spending nights with her new foster family in late January 1999 and moved in with them on February 1 of that year.
Early on in her pregnancy, mother insisted, and the doctors agreed, that she be taken off her antipsychotic medication so as not to harm the unborn child. As a result, mother’s delusional behavior worsened, and she was hospitalized for periods of time. At times, she informed support staff of her delusion that she was carrying
G.C. was born on February 17, 1999 and, as planned, lived with mother at the home of the foster family. At first, things appeared to be going fine for mother and baby, but mother became depressed, and on March 7,1999 she attempted suicide and was hospitalized. Mother indicated to an SRS employee who visited her at the hospital that she was depressed in part because she felt that no one trusted her to care for her baby.
On March 9,1999, SRS filed a CHINS petition, and the family court entered an emergency order removing G.C. from the foster family’s home. Following the merits hearing, which was held over three days in April and May of 1999, the family court granted SRS’s petition to adjudicate the child CHINS. Citing mother’s history of profound mental illness, including the abuse of her daughter eleven years earlier, the court conсluded that G.C. was in need of care or supervision because mother remained the child’s legal guardian, and the foster family had not been made aware of the nature and significance of mother’s mental disorders. On appeal, mother argues that (1) G.C.’s best interest required the family court to allow her to relitigate the issue of whether she continued to suffer from, or ever suffered from, MSI? and (2) the family court erred in adjudicating the child CHINS because he had proper “parental care” under the arrangement set up by her and the staff at WCMH.
Apparently, at some point during the merits hearing, mother requested that the family court allow her tо relitigate the 1988 stipulated finding that she suffers from MSE Each of the mental health professionals who testified at the hearing, including psychiatrists and other staff from WCMH, a psychologist from the Vermont State Hospital, and another psychologist with expertise in diagnosing MSI? indicated that mother most probably did not suffer from MSI? and that, in any case, the diagnosis had been based on insufficient information. The experts agreed that mother’s explanation for why she harmed her daughter eleven years earlier — to force the State to remove her children from her father’s abusive household — was more probable than the MSP diagnosis. Mother claims that she was misdiagnosed, asserting that she agreed to the MSP diagnosis without comprehending the future implications of doing so. She believes that because MSP poses a significant risk to the children of those who suffer from the illness, and is widely recognized as difficult to cure, the faulty diagnosis has colored both the State’s and the family court’s view of her ability to provide a safe environment for her son. In her view, any interest in protecting the finality of the 1988 finding by estopping her from challenging the earlier diagnosis must yield to the overriding importance of determining G.C.’s best interest.
The problem with mother’s argument is that the family court did not rely on the MSP diagnosis in making its CHINS determination. While expressly acknowledging that the validity of the diagnosis might become relevant at later disposition hearings, the court declined to set aside the challenged finding “[a]t this juncture.” The court concluded that, regardless of whether the MSP diagnosis was correct, G.C. was in need of care or supervision because of mothеr’s unstable psychiatric history and her inability to maintain herself in the community without significant support, coupled with the fact that she, rather than the foster family, retained legal guardianship over the child. Because the family court did not rely on the MSP diagnosis in making its CHINS determination, and the record supports that determination, we need not address mother’s argument that she should be allowed to challenge the 1988 finding that she suffers
Irrespective of the earlier MSP diagnosis, mother contends that the family court erred in finding that G.C. was “without proper parental care . . . necessary for his well-being.” See 38 V.S.A. § 5502(a)(12)(B). According to mother, she and the staff at WCMH had made arrangements to assure that G.C. would be provided with proper parental care during the anticipated periods when she lapsed into depression or was otherwise unable to cope with caring for the child. She asserts that the arrangements worked just as planned, and that G.C. has never been without proper parental care because hеr foster family took over care of the child following her suicide attempt and hospitalization.
We agree with mother that the use of the term “parental care” in § 5502(a)(12)(B) does not compel a CHINS adjudication whenever incapacitated parents leave their children with relatives or others to provide “pаrental” care during the period of incapacitation. See In re Ayres,
Our decision in In re S.A.M.,
Nevertheless, we conclude that the record suppоrts the family court’s CHINS adjudication in this case. The psychiatric history relied upon by the family court revealed that (1) notwithstanding mother’s claim that the harm she inflicted upon her one-year-old daughter eleven years earlier resulted from her desire to protect her children from the abusive environment in which they were living, mother had a history of child abuse; (2) in the decade since her first two children had been taken from her, mother had been periodically hospitalized for threatening or attempting suicide; (3) during that period, mother had had over seventy contacts with police, and her longest period of stability without outside intervention сould be measured in days; (4) mother and her doctors conceded that she was incapable of caring for herself, let alone a child, without substantial support; (5) problems stemming from mother’s mental illness resulted in her being hospitalized only days before G.C.’s birth; (6) mother attempted suicide approximately two weeks after G.C.’s birth; (7) although the foster couple knew that they would be responsible for providing G.C. care in the event mother was unable to do so, they had not been informed of the depth or details of mother’s mental problems; (8) the foster couple did not have legal guardianship over G.C. and thus could not stop mother from leaving the foster home with the child if she chose to do so; and (9) mother stated after her latest suicide attempt that she was depressed in part because the current twenty-four-hour-a-day foster care arrangement made her feel like she was not trusted to care for her child.
Notwithstanding the mitigating circumstances citеd by mother, these facts support the family court’s order finding G.C. to be in need of care or supervision. See In re M.B.,
While we conclude that the State met its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence
Affirmed.
Notes
We recognize, however, that the circumstances of this case, including the undisputed expert testimony challenging the earlier MSP diagnosis, bring into question the fairness of relying on that diagnosis eleven years later in dependency proceedings involving other children. See Trepanier v. Getting Organized, Inc.,
Although the family court noted that the State requested the court to make its findings by clear and convincing evidence, the court did not indicate that its findings were made under the higher standard.