Ranch Ehrlo program will help more families reunite
Daryl Holmes is a single dad of three kids under age four — a challenging job, to put it mildly.
“Every day is a journey. It’s not easy.”
But Holmes, a recovering drug addict, wanted to regain custody of his children after they were apprehended by social services.
The Ranch Ehrlo Society’s family treatment program helped him get there.
The program offers long-term and intensive support to families, helping parents learn healthy habits and reuniting them with their children in foster care.
Holmes spent several months last year in the family treatment program, learning new skills to be a good dad — including healthy coping mechanisms, how to clean the house, shop for groceries and make a budget.
“When you’re an addict, you don’t have all these skills,” said Holmes, who has been clean for more than two years.
It’s about “supporting them as they’re relearning how to parent,” said Patti Petrucka, director of family programs at Ranch Ehrlo Society.
That includes therapy, programs for addiction and relapse prevention, parenting education, support groups and in-home support.
“Some of our families don’t know how to cook. Some of our families don’t know how to maintain their homes. Some of our families don’t know how to advocate through different systems,” said Petrucka.
“Getting your kids out of bed in the morning, fed breakfast and going to school. … Lots of our families are in poverty, lots of our families are just stuck.”
The family treatment program has grown incrementally since it began in 2006 with two families as clients.
It will see its fifth expansion on Sept. 1, with the ability to help 23 families at a time.
“That might not sound like a lot,” said Petrucka, but each family is in the program for upwards of three months.
There is a current wait-list of 26 families, referred from within Regina, Saskatchewan and across Canada, many from the territories.
Treatment is not a cookie-cutter approach, because every family is different.
Progress involves “a lot of collaboration,” said Petrucka, between the parent, the program worker and child welfare services.
The goal is to reunite families and keep children out of the social services system. It’s working: Following up with families a year after they’ve completed the program, 66 per cent of them remain together.
“They want to do well and they can do well with the right services,” said Petrucka, a social worker for 27 years.
“If they’re just given enough support — all parents want to be good parents, all parents love their children, they just need the right mix of support and treatment so that they can live together safely.”
“Anyone that’s willing to do the work to get their kids back and they’re willing to reach out, Ranch Ehrlo’s there for them,” said Holmes, who also credits Native Health Services and one child welfare worker for helping put his family back together.
Anyone that’s willing to do the work to get their kids back and they’re willing to reach out, Ranch Ehrlo’s there for them.