How are custody issues affected by addiction? In Michigan, the court will listen to you if you claim that you are attending rehab and therapy in order to deal with your addiction.
Click here to watch the video on How Addiction Struggles Impacts Custody in Michigan
You’re going through treatment. Everything is fine. However, establishing your child’s custody will not be a consideration. At least not at the moment. The interests of your child come first. The court may not discuss custody until you have really fulfilled any rehab or therapy you are receiving. Only your child’s best interests are far more important than your addiction problem.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than eight million children under the age of 18 are thought to reside with at least one adult who has substance use disorder or SUD, which equates to a rate of more than one in ten children. Most of them are younger than five years old. Studies of families with SUDs have uncovered trends having a major impact on a child’s development and the risk that they may experience emotional, behavioral, or drug use issues as adults.
The Struggles of Self and Family
A parent with SUD who has mood swings, is focused on getting wasted, or spends a lot of time recovering from the effects of drugs may miss opportunities to promote healthy connection. As a result, the complex attachment system that is based on millions of implicit and reciprocal exchanges between the infant and attachment figure would be impacted.
The subtle building blocks of attachment include eye contact, tone, volume, and rhythm of voice, comforting touch, and the capacity to read the needs of the newborn. A psychological immune system of sorts, healthy connection. The relational attachment system protects against psychological issues and illness, much as humans require a physiological immune system to ward off disease and illness.
The family is still the primary environment for socialization, nurturing, and human relationships in today’s world. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to how SUDs affect the family as a whole and specific family members.
The individual using substances has a distinct impact on each family and each family member, which may include, but is not limited to, unmet developmental requirements, impaired attachment, financial difficulties, legal issues, emotional pain, and occasionally violence being committed against him or her. Additionally, there is a higher chance of children getting an SUD themselves.
We are aware that due to genetic and environmental variables, those who grow up in families with SUDs have a greatly increased chance of developing SUDs themselves. It’s critical to do an assessment of the immediate and extended family for active substance abuse. Significant treatment implications result from knowing that a person with an SUD grew up in a family with an SUD.
A family member who is trying to quit using drugs or alcohol will also be more likely to relapse if there is active substance abuse in their family.
A parent who has an SUD is three times more likely to mistreat their child physically or sexually. As a result, these children have a 40% increased risk of committing a violent crime and a 50% increased risk of being arrested as minors. Children who have experienced abuse are more prone to exhibit behavioral issues, conduct problems, and other externalizing disorders, whereas children who have experienced neglect are more likely to exhibit internalizing disorders such as anxiety, social withdrawal, depression, and poor peer relations.
All forms of sexual abuse, including incest, have a very strong correlation with parental substance misuse. A little over two thirds of incest offenders admit to drinking before the offense.
The Impact on Child Custody
With all of that said, you can understand why the courts are not inclined to discuss child custody issues when rehabilitation or treatment have not been fully completed, and the parent with SUD is fully recovered and functional.
Parental rights may be affected when a parent battles drug addiction. If a parent uses drugs, child protection officials may in some situations take the child away from them. Similar to this, if a father has unresolved drug misuse or addiction difficulties after a divorce, the court may deny him custody or, if he continues to use drugs, may completely revoke his parental rights.
Therefore, preserving custody and parental rights frequently depends on addressing the underlying condition of SUD.
Custody is typically decided by the court during a divorce. Physical custody, legal custody, and joint or shared custody are only a few of the different types of custody that the court may grant. If a parent uses drugs, he or she may not be granted physical custody of the child or the opportunity to share in child care. Likewise, if a parent does not seek drug addiction counseling or make other attempts to attain sobriety, the court may remove that parent’s legal custody—or power to make choices for the child.
The court may change its ruling and grant sole custody to the parent without a drug issue if the parents have joint custody, which means they share responsibility for raising the child and making choices about their welfare.
A Michigan court will decide the child’s future after taking into account a number of variables meant to pinpoint the child’s best interests, as it does in any case where parental fitness is in question.
Even if it is a significant one, parental fitness is merely one of these elements. Someone who acknowledges they have a problem with substance addiction but is seeking therapy for it or someone who is mentally ill and receiving treatment, differs from someone who completely denies the problem in many ways.
The Road To Recovery and To Home
Timelines for recovery are crucial in helping attempts to reunite families when a parent of a child in foster care has been impacted by substance use disorder. In order to assist reunification, many jurisdictions have created specific programs that coordinate child welfare, drug rehabilitation centers, and court systems.
Families in Michigan may avail of recovery programs that are state managed or are funded by the state of Michigan. There’s such a program called Substance Use Disorder Family Support Program or SUDFSP.
In homes where a parent or primary caregiver has a substance use disorder (substance abuse, including drug addiction or alcohol addiction), or co-occurring disorders, and is at risk of having their child removed due to abuse and/or neglect, the SUDFSP works to provide recovery and stability. Families with children coming home from foster care can also use it.
When a parent has a co-occurring disorder or is influenced by alcohol or drugs, SUDFSP offers skill-based interventions and support for families.
Families that meet the requirements and take part are given a Family Support Specialist who works closely with them at home and in the community. The intervention and therapy’s main areas of focus could be family functioning, communication, a greater understanding of the effects of substance abuse on parenting relationships with children, a decrease in substance use, physiological and cognitive functioning, and recovery support systems.
The judge may mandate that a parent undergo therapy for addiction treatment if the court determines that the parent uses drugs or is addicted to them. Depending on how serious the parent’s substance abuse problems are, rehab treatment may involve visiting an outpatient substance addiction therapist or going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
In extreme circumstances of addiction, the court may order a parent to participate in hospital or mental health facility inpatient detoxification and rehabilitation. The parent may be allowed to visit the child under supervision while they are in treatment. After the addicted parent successfully completes treatment, the court may reinstate custody or visitation if it had been suspended.
Failure to carry out the rehabilitation program that the court has ordered could result in the permanent termination of parental rights.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel today for more advice on Family Law!
Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.