Once upon a time I had an opportunity to work with a dad whose son was in foster care. He had a history of drug abuse that was so bad the social worker had filed a petition to terminate his parental rights. But dad said he had gotten clean. The court had ordered him to submit to regular drug testing and document attendance at narcotics anonymous meetings. Dad said he was passing the drug tests and showing he was attending the meetings, but he really worried that it wasn't enough for the social worker.
I turned to the safety network members who were present and asked them if they believed dad was staying clean. They all said they believed he was clean because he would disappear from their lives whenever he started using. He wouldn't answer his phone. He wouldn't answer the door even when they were pretty sure he was home. Dad said that he felt ashamed when he started using and he didn't want the people he cared about to see him like that.
I asked the network if they could come up with a rule for the safety plan that dad could follow to convince the judge he is clean. They agreed on a rule where everyday someone from the network would take a picture with or of dad and text it to everyone else on the network. If it was getting late in a day without a picture, network members would reach out to dad to get the picture.
In the days before the court hearing about terminating his parental rights, someone from the network printed all of the pictures and put them in an album for dad to take to court. The drug test results, documentation of NA meeting attendance, reports from the visits dad was allowed with his son, and especially the picture album, were enough to convince the judge that dad really had gotten clean, to deny the petition, and return the boy to live with his dad.
I continued to receive texted pictures of dad, son, and network members for a time, but soon there were fewer and eventually they stopped. And now just as in all the cases I saw closed throughout my career, I can only hope dad stayed clean and the network members stayed involved with dad and son.