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Supporting Mom and Baby is a first for SERV
Helena hugs her daughter
MaryAnna during the baby's
christening early March.
"Good morning, SERV Behavioral Health System. This is Helena. May I help you?”
The cheery greeting comes through loud and clear over the
phone as Helena P. readies to direct the call coming in to the
Progressive
Achievement
Center
in
Ewing
,
N.J.
As
SERV
Achievement
Center
’s
part-time receptionist for the Progressive Achievement Center (PAC), Helena,
26, keeps post and greets visitors at the nonprofit organization that has
employed her since last December for two 5- hour days a week.
Her familiarity with the Center is apparent as she moves
from various offices to the PAC Thrift Store and back to her front-office
desk. Indeed, the Center is her second
home not only because she has been an employee for the past few months, but
also because she has been a SERV consumer since June 2007.
Helena
has a developmental disability as a result of being born with Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome. She has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder, impulse control
disorder and post-traumaticstress disorder, and has a history of self-injurious
behavior. Most of her symptoms are now well managed with the help of medications.
She entered SERV Achievement Centers’ Supervised Apartment
Program after a long history of residing in behavioral group homes as an
adolescent and many psychiatric hospitals as an adult. She now has found a long-term home at SERV Achievement
Centers, where she gets the individualized training, support and skills necessary
for living and working successfully in the community.
In this environment, the single mom has found a surrogate family
for herself and her 11-month-old daughter, MaryAnna, among the staff at
SERV. From SERV’s president/CEO, whom Helena
affectionately calls Uncle Gary (Van Nostrand) in front of her daughter; to her
Residential Coordinator Deb Klemmer who was her birthing coach; to her Direct
Support Professional Tahira McCoy, the baby’s godmother, Helena receives the same
kind of “family” support from SERV that was provided her by the foster family
that took her in when she was 4.
Born to a mother in
Wisconsin
who was addicted to drugs and alcohol,
Helena
was taken in by an uncle for a few years until a foster home was found for her
in
Milwaukee
when she was 4½. Pat and Bob, who had
two children of their own, took
Helena
into their family and aimed to guide her in the right direction. After
Helena
started to display
aggressive behavior with her classmates and teachers, ran away from home, and got
into numerous scrapes in the community, she entered St. Rose for Girls Group
Home at the age of 8.
“I was angry,” says
Helena,
when she recalls how she was let down by her biological mother, who wrote her
letters every month and included a $20 bill. “I took the money, but ripped up the letters and didn’t even read them.” Her voice softens when she adds, “My foster mom turned me into somebody better.”
When Pat and Bob moved to
New Jersey,
Helena
transferred to CPC Behavioral Health Care for girls in Morganville, where she
stayed until the age of 21. There, she
regularly saw a psychiatrist and therapist and blossomed as an athlete in
Special Olympics events. She has earned 50 gold, silver and bronze medals plus
a few ribbons in track & field, bowling, volleyball and skiing.
While living at CPC,
Helena
graduated from
High Point
High School
and
Freehold
Vocational School
where she learned floral design. She
has used her trade school skills to create floral table centerpieces that are
for sale at the Racks By PAC thrift store at SERV’s
Progressive
Achievement
Center
in
Ewing. Money raised there helps support day outings for consumers.
Helena
spent four years in
the Supervised Apartment Program operated by another agency in
Middlesex
County
before she Helena's foster parents, Pat
decided it was “time
for a change.” and Bob, hold MaryAnna
The New Jersey Division
of Developmental during the christening.
Disabilities contacted several agencies and SERV Behavioral
Health System responded.
In June 2007,
Helena
joined
SERV’s Supervised Apartment Program and moved into a unit in Plainsboro,
Middlesex
County
. In her new home, she was supported by staff 24/7 as she honed her daily
living skills and took responsibility for her medical treatment. To strengthen her vocational skills, she
immediately started attending the PAC day program in
Ewing
where she learned to file, stuff envelopes and shred paper.
It was in October 2008 when Helena found out she was
pregnant after coming back from Massachusetts, where she met up with a friend
after attending a funeral for a family friend. For a brief time, the father moved in with
Helena
and attended birthing classes with her.
However, he became short-tempered and verbally and emotionally abusive toward
her. SERV staff repeatedly made attempts
to help them interact with each other in a more healthy way, but finally had to
ask him to leave the apartment.
Supporting a mother through prenatal care, child birth and
child rearing is a first for SERV Achievement Centers.
“This experience with motherhood has taught
Helena
responsibility. She has matured
emotionally by leaps and bounds since delivering the baby,” says Deb Klemmer, her
Residential Coordinator who acted as birthing coach. “She has blossomed into someone who has been
able to seek out her own resources (such as finding a pediatrician, enrolling
in WIC, getting the baby a Social Security number and opening a baby’s bank
account). She never asked us to do that
for her.”
Through Internet research,
Helena
has connected with support agencies
such as Middlesex County Social Services, the Visiting Nurse Association and
the Salvation Army to receive items such as baby formula, a high chair and car
seat.
“Being a mom has
improved her skills in all areas,” Klemmer says. “She has become a better
housekeeper so that she can provide a safe place for her child. She made a medical chart for MaryAnna, just
like SERV’s regulations, because she knows the importance of documentation.”
Many of SERV’s employees at the Administrative office are
familiar with
Helena
and enjoy her visits with doe-eyed MaryAnna. There are a special few who have a familial place in
Helena
and MaryAnna’s lives. Klemmer beams when she talks about the baby’s
birth. She can rattle off the date (May 10, 2008), labor time (14-15 hours),
and birth weight and length (5 lbs., 2 oz.; 18 inches) as if the statistics were
her own child’s. “I was so honored that
she asked me to be there.”
McCoy is like a “second mother” to MaryAnna, according to
Helena, who asked her to be co-godmother for the baby’s christening,
which took place March 15 at the United Presbyterian Church in
Plainfield. (
Helena
’s
foster parents Pat and Bob were there for the christening and presented
MaryAnna with a handmade, white satin and lace christening gown.) McCoy’s 2-year-old
twins often play with the baby and enjoy giving her kisses and hugs.
Helena
thinks of them as her niece and nephew.
And there’s Gary Van Nostrand, SERV’s president/CEO, who
will some day be called Uncle Gary when MaryAnna begins to speak. “When
Helena
visits the office, she keeps me up-to-date on MaryAnna’s progress, such as when
she started on solid food or began to crawl,” he says.
Helena
acknowledges that raising a baby has many challenges, and that she is able to
do so with the help of SERV’s support 24 hours a day, one day at a time. “I am raising not just myself, but I am also raising
my daughter. I have to be responsible
for my life, and then for her. I know
that everything I do will say something to her.”
“(Motherhood) has shown us a side of
Helena
that we did not know could have
existed,” Klemmer says. “We (at SERV)
are very proud of her. I hope we get to
stay in her life for a long time.”
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At SERV we share our experience, support and guidance with children, adults and families as they work to
recover from and cope with mental illness, addictions,
challenging behaviors, and developmental disabilities