Camille, an attractive but sullen young woman, entered treatment foster care at the age 14 in the spring of 2005. She was removed from her mother’s home for serious and chronic maltreatment. Despite the dire circumstances that required the state to declare her “A Child in Need of Assistance” (CINA), Camille felt a deep sense of grief and loss as a result of her separation from her mother and all she held dear. She raged against all the adults who she considered part of the foster care system and who she blamed for her loss.

Over the next several months Camille’s social interaction continued to be controlled by the rage and hostility she felt about being unable to return home to live with her mom. As she acted out her anger with very defiant and passive-aggressive behaviors her course in foster care became increasingly unsatisfactory. She was suspended from school over and over as would-be advocates among her teachers and peers sought to distance themselves lest they become targets of her uncompromising despair and anger. Constant conflict prevailed in her foster home and even the foster parents felt helpless and hopeless about Camille and her emotional turmoil. Eventually they gave up.

The MPP social workers, however, refused to quit. They understood that it would take a special foster parent with unique reserves of patience and an ability to demonstrate unequivocal love for a suffering child like Camille to really help.

At the lowest point in the several months Camille had been in foster care, the MPP social worker found the foster parents she hoped were the ones who were willing and able to help Camille. After being fully informed about Camille’s background and emotional problems they opened their arms to Camille. They embraced the goal of helping her to relinquish her pain and begin the process of healing and growth that treatment foster care offers even the most damaged children. These new foster parents demonstrated acceptance for Camille’s anger and rage. In the face of Camille’s angry acting out, they provided nurturing, unequivocal positive attention and reinforcement for positive behaviors.

Camille began to turn the corner and responded to the foster parents' efforts with an attempt to trust, talk about her pain and begin the healing. She finally let people see past her anger and bonded with teachers and formed friendships at school. She is now doing well academically. Camille is currently in a LPN Nursing Program and has stated she wants to remain with her current foster parents through college. Finally with the loving support of her foster parents she has been able to openly, although still painfully, acknowledge that her mom cannot provide the care that she needs. She now acts as a positive role model and mentor for another foster child recently placed in the home. Camille see’s herself in this child and has become part of the child’s healing process. Camille has been able to share her own experience to help the younger child understand that the loss and grief associated with losing your parents are normal but can lead to negative behaviors that are self-defeating.