Ashley Swon is a counselor who lives in Moberly and works at Crossroads Counseling LLC based in Fayette.
Recently, she began to work with some clients sent to them from Randolph County who were involved with Missouri Children’s Division and whose children had been taken into foster care.
Swon said these individuals were having to drive from Moberly to Fayette to receive services, which was a challenge for many of them.
So, she approached her supervisor and created a program where she comes to Moberly-area parents – providing therapy and counseling in their own homes.
“It can be really helpful for stay-at-home parents or people with medical challenges who aren't able to get out of the house, elderly people,” Swon said. “There's so many people that could benefit from having someone come to their home.”
She spoke about the benefits of this home-based care and of giving families skills that help them stay together.
Missouri Health is spending January 2025 speaking with community members in Moberly and Randolph County. If you have a story you'd like to share, contact us at smithbecky@missouri.edu.
Ashley Swon: The system does really focus on the children and that' s great and that's needed, but I think we do, we kind of dehumanize the parents, and we assume that they don't care and that they're just bad people and bad parents.
I will tell you 100% of the clients I have worked with in the Children's Division system have been really great people who've just had some really bad life circumstances.
Just because someone has their children removed doesn't mean that they did anything. There's a process in which, you know, the state investigates to see if something did actually happen, and then they either, you know, the kids either go back home or they stay in foster care for a little bit longer.
But there's a process there, and so, just because someone's had their children removed doesn't mean that they committed any kind of child abuse or any crime or neglect or anything like that.
A lot of times I think the only thing going on is poverty – it's that we don't have access to resources, and I think mental health is another big one.
You know, I've had parents have their children removed for things like “unsanitary living conditions,” and I can only assume that that's probably due to some depression.
"Counseling can happen anywhere, that it doesn't have to take place in an office."Ashley Swon
Because once we start going and counseling them, I'm starting to realize that, “yeah, we've got some undiagnosed anxiety or depression,” and for moms – especially single moms without a support system – that's huge.
I mean, women struggle postpartum with anxiety, depression, and sometimes it can take years to recover from that, and when you add poverty, and, you know, lack of resources, a lack of a support system on top of that – it can make it really difficult to parent.
So, I'm really glad that we're able to serve this population. I love being able to advocate for them and help them, you know, get back on track so that they can be the kind of parent that they want to be.
I think, to look at the big picture, we know that attachment is so important. Like, we've learned in the mental health field in the last several years that attachment with our primary caregiver is one of the most important indicators of health later on in life. Not just mental health, but overall health.
And I think if you look at the big picture, and the trickle-down effect in the community, as well, when we take a child away from their primary parent – even when there's some problems there, and we put them into foster care, or we adopt them out – that trauma occurs.
And there might be cases where that's needed and we have to, and then we work through that, but there is, that is very, very traumatic to both the child and the parent.
And so, I think if we can invest in families and keep them together and help them with the resources they need – we're not only helping that family, but there's this trickle-down effect society wide.
