While Samantha Mushrush was getting high in one room of the house, her daughter, Emma, was in another room in her playpen watching her favorite movie, "Finding Nemo," over and over.

This went on for a year-and-a-half.

Mushrush, 24, said that while she was using, she never thought she was neglecting her oldest daughter, Emma, now 3.

But she readily admits she used methamphetamine throughout her pregnancy with her second daughter, Kayla, now 18 months.

"I kicked my kids to the curb, it was my high that mattered," Mushrush said.

Her reckless behavior led to her losing custody of both her children to Kings County Child Protective Services on Sept. 20, 2005.

Kayla was taken away from her at the hospital the day she was born, after they both tested positive for meth.

Child Protective Services also took legal custody of Emma, although she was allowed to remain in the care of Mushrush's parents, who had been taking care of her for the last few months.

Today Mushrush is in the process of regaining legal custody of her daughter, Emma.

Kayla is in the process of being legally adopted by Mushrush's brother and his wife, who live in Bakersfield.

Mushrush and her daughters represent just one of the Kings County families impacted by meth.

Licensed clinical social worker Sandra Warmerdam said when children are taken from the parents it can lead to all kinds of problems.

"I think they're conflicted because they still love their biological parent and I think they're angry at their parent because their parent can't take care of them," said Warmerdam, who specializes in child and family counseling.

"It causes a lot of internal conflict. They still feel a loyalty to the parent they love."

There are sometimes long-term effects as well.

Warmerdam said she's noticed that adults who went through a forced separation from their parents experience a sense of insecurity and anxiety, as well as susceptibility to depression.

Of the 491 current CPS cases, 40 percent involve parents who've done meth.

Tina Garcia, a social services program manager for CPS, said their caseload has increased each year, and she attributes that rise to meth.

"It destroys families and devastates communities," said Garcia. "It hurts children -- children have died -- and it needs to stop. But addicts can't stop using by themselves. They need help, and they need services in the community to help them."

Children are not always removed from the parents when they are using drugs. An assessment is done in each case.

"We look for if the children have access to the drug or the paraphernalia -- they could swallow the methamphetamine or they could or get hold of the pipe -- especially young children if they're walking around, and with teenagers, are they using meth, are they dealing for their parents, are they prostituting themselves or doing anything like that?" Garcia said.

Peggy Marvin, deputy director of Kings County CPS, said her office receives calls from neighbors, mandated reporters and relatives about situations where children may be exposed to meth.

In each situation where CPS removes children from the home, the case goes to juvenile court and the court decides whether the children are in immediate danger and whether they should be returned home to the parents.

The parents then are given a case plan in court, which includes recommendations for treatment which they must complete before they are allowed to live with their children again.

In Mushrush's situation, her case plan ordered her to submit to random drug testing, parenting classes, two Narcotics Anonymous meetings per week, attend Life and Focus substance abuse classes three times a week, and six months in an alcohol/drug treatment program at Kings View Mental Health Services.

Mushrush, nine months pregnant at the time of her interview, said she's been clean for a year-and-a-half, and is working through a case plan to regain custody of Emma.

She experienced a setback after she completed the first phase of Kings View and her parenting classes. She skipped about a month's worth of her court-ordered classes, which set her back a little in the CPS process. She said she didn't relapse during this time.

"It was me assuming I was recovered and I didn't need any help," she said. "But then, I started to take responsibility and realize what my priorities were -- and that's my daughter."

Mushrush is currently in family maintenance status. If she continues to do well, she'll be completed with the CPS process in November.

How long the families are separated depends on a variety of factors, including the age of the child.

State law gives parents with a child under age 3 six months to complete court-ordered services, while parents with children over age 3 are given one year.

Services can be extended for up to 18 months depending on the effort of the parent.

Garcia said these short time limits make recovery challenging.

"You have these very strict timelines for a severe drug addict to meet. So, we and the parents are in this race to try to get them clean," Garcia said.

While the parent is in treatment, children can live with relatives, which is still considered a foster placement.

Of the 491 children being served by CPS in Kings County, 348 of the children are living in foster care while the rest are living with the parents under court supervision.

Hanford foster care provider Debbie DeMatto said at least half of the children she's fostered in the last three years were from homes where a parent or caregiver was using meth.

DeMatto, who fosters children age 2 and under, said she's taken care of several drug-exposed infants -- babies who were exposed to meth in the womb.

She has noticed that these babies tend to be more fussy, more irritable, cry more, have more muscle stiffness and have a tendency to spit up more.

"It's tempting to get frustrated because of the crying, but you know they're going through something they shouldn't have to experience, they have something in their system and they have effects to their body that they can't control," DeMatto said.

DeMatto said most of the symptoms tend to go away after a few months with the exception of the muscle stiffness, but that all usually show some kind of developmental delay.

To help them with their development, DeMatto said she takes the children to physical therapy and sometimes speech therapy sessions at United Cerebral Palsy of Central California Parent Child Development Program in Hanford.

Mushrush said Kayla was born with some initial meth-addiction symptoms -- she'd stiffen up and her eyes would shake or spasm and she had to be given methadone, an opiate, in smaller doses to curb her craving for meth and wean her off the drug.

However, Mushrush said now Kayla is developing normally -- she doesn't need physical therapy and she's been growing and developing at a normal rate.

"She's been perfectly fine, that makes me feel good," Mushrush said. "But, even the small part she had to endure makes me feel guilty."

The reporter can be reached at 582-0471, ext. 3052

(Sept. 23, 2007)