[On screen text: Intensive Safety Services. Family Story: Jessica and Chris]

[Image: Oklahoma Department of Human Services logo]

[On screen text: Jessica Martin, ISS Client]

[On screen text: Something Different]

Jessica: I’ve had previous history with DHS. I have had some rights terminated, 
I’ve relinquished rights, and this time I wanted to do something different and 
work on keeping my children. 

[On screen text: Chris Holder, ISS Client]

Chris: When we first had Neaveh at the hospital, of course, the stuff that 
happened in the past. They were going to come anyway, and they came and they 
removed the baby from the hospital and put us in the program. The safety plan 
monitor, they gave us an opportunity to pick who we wanted. We had some 
difficulties with the first one we picked and we finally found that right one 
and we struggled through it a lot. It was hard. It was an experience that you 
don’t know how to explain. 

Jessica: We brought her home January 21, so she was a couple days shy of being 
two months old and our case closed out at five months. We were completely done, 
signed off with DHS in five months. They stepped in the hospital with Phoenix 
and questioned why my drug tests were clean. My drug tests were clean because 
I’m on Suboxone and that does not show up in a mandatory drug test. It has to be 
tested for itself. 

Chris: Her doctor prescribed the medication to her and they still took her and 
that is the sad part. 

[On screen text: Learning Together]

Jessica: Not having your kids and having to work services it makes you feel like 
you’re never going to get there, you’re never going to achieve the goal. So 
there’s, I know many parents that have had their kids taken away and they veer 
away from doing the parenting classes and all this because of being scared of 
they're not ever going to obtain their children back. There’s a lot of people 
out there that are like that. Even when they do go to a class or whatever. What 
are you going to learn from it because all you can think is your kids aren’t 
with you, you’re going home to an empty house. So, yes absolutely. This is a 
much better program than just yanking somebody’s children away. I am sure that 
there are situations where children need to be yanked away, but not all of them, 
and everybody deserves a fair chance in life.

Chris: It taught me a lot. With my kids, me having to fight for my kids and 
going through these classes, it made me strive a lot harder with them here 
because I know that, like she said, I had a positive to come back to. It was an 
experience that I think every parent should really have to be able to learn 
about the situations with babies that, there’s a lot of safety that parents just 
neglect a lot. 

Jessica: They taught us how to safely set up the house. They went through all 
our cabinets and drawers and all that and we went to the store with them and 
they got us safety stuff. They are very understanding people. They’ll work with 
you in any way that they can. They’re not in it to take your children away. 

[On screen text: Working Together]

Jessica: They want you to keep your children or bring your children home as soon 
as possible, and if you’re in a situation like us and you’re just having a baby 
and your baby got taken from the hospital then take that time, what is it, 
postpartum time I guess, take that time to get all those classes done. They are 
very helpful. If you need help with a bill or something they’ll help you. If you 
need help getting something for your child, diapers, wipes, whatever it is 
they’ll help you do it. They’re very understanding, very good people. 

Chris: I learned never keep anything in. Anything that you need to talk about, 
let them know because they’re there to help you. They’re not going to turn 
against you, you know. People take DHS for granted thinking that they’re bad 
people. There is a reason for them coming in to show you where you’re faults 
are, to show you that everybody deserves a chance but keep on that right track 
when you do, don’t fall off the wagon after they leave your home because they 
won’t leave you alone. 

Jessica: They’re not just going to let you go through it fast to get it over 
with anyway. They’re going to make sure that you learn from everything you were 
supposed to learn from that list and it’s not just flipping through pages and 
know I’m going to get my kids back if I hurry up and do this. That’s not the way 
it works. We enjoy each and every second with our children. So they are our 
worlds.

[On screen text: Growing Together] 

Chris: I’m looking forward to seeing these babies growing up and these smiling 
faces and watching them progress. You’ve done something in order to be in this 
program. Keep your head up and have a positive outlook on it. Because if you 
have any negativity it’s going to feel like it takes forever. Because there were 
times me and her would break down and feel like we were going backwards. It’s a 
great feeling to talk to them and get things off your chest and trusting a 
stranger is very hard. They weren’t strangers to me at all. They were very heart 
warming and they were right there for you.

[On screen text: Feeling Connected] 

Jessica: We made a connection and I felt very safe to open up to her. I mean not 
right off the bat but after a couple of weeks, you know, there is things that I 
told her that nobody in my life knows other than him and a handful of people, I 
guess I should say, and yeah, we built a friendship. She wasn’t just here to 
help us get our kids back. I mean, we cried when she left. We loved her. We 
loved every one of them that came in here. There’s no words to explain how it 
feels to have your family together when you thought they were going to be ripped 
apart. There are no words to describe that.

[On screen text: Family Together]