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Donna Nicholson Ersek
(retired)
Parent Coordination: The New Trend
(Published in Bar Bulletin
9/02)
by Donna Nicholson Ersek
In the battle to help deal with high conflict families, there is a new trend emerging – appointing mental health professionals to act as Parent Coordinators. While Courts have been appointing therapists to help assist families for years, the concept of labeling therapists as “Parent Coordinators,” and in effect creating a new kind of mental health profession, is a growing trend now present in Maryland and across the nation.
A Parent Coordinator is typically a mental health professional who is appointed by consent of the parties or by court order to work with parents to help facilitate joint decision-making regarding child-related issues after a custody order has been entered. These issues can involve visitation exchanges, holidays, medical care, extracurricular activities, education or discipline. Parent Coordinators can also help parents create or modify a parenting plan, understand the developmental needs of their children and teach problem solving strategies. The goal of a Parent Coordinator is to help parents learn how to communicate more effectively and thus avoid the conflicts which cause them to return to court. When a Parent Coordinator can reduce the need for parents to return to court, the conflict for their children is also reduced.
The concept of parent coordination dates back to the early 1990’s. In 1994, two psychologists from a high conflict study group in Colorado, Carla Garrity and Mitchell A. Baris, published a book about parent coordination called Caught in the Middle: Protecting the Children of High Conflict Divorce. Since then, there have been other studies and publications lending credence to parent coordination.
As Parent Coordinators have gained success in dealing with high conflict families, more states have begun using them in addition to other services, such as mediation, parenting seminars, custody evaluators and guardians ad litem. The difference Parent Coordinators bring to families in conflict is that they are often appointed long-term to work on problems that reappear after the litigation and other services have ceased. Since Parent Coordinators are often trained mental health therapists, they can understand the underlying emotional and personality issues that contribute to conflicts and can use their training to help deal with these issues.
There is no uniformity among states as to when and how Parent Coordinators are used. In 1999, the National Parent Coordinator Association was formed and is currently seeking to develop standards of practice and ways to encourage collaboration among Parent Coordinators. For more information about the organization, go to
www.cooperativeparenting.com.
Currently, approximately one-third of the states use Parent Coordinators. There are only four states with Parent Coordinator statutes: Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oregon. Some states have used existing statutes which allow for “mediators” or “special masters” as a basis to appoint Parent Coordinators: Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Other states appoint Parent Coordinators absent statutory authority: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont.
In states without specific statutes authorizing Parent Coordinators, including Maryland, courts are nonetheless appointing Parent Coordinators and/or asking the parties to consent to the appointment. In Maryland, Frederick and Montgomery Counties are apparently the only counties currently appointing Parent Coordinators in family cases. Baltimore City uses Parent Coordinators in Juvenile cases to work with the Department of Social Services. Certain counties, such as Calvert, Garrett, Kent, Somerset and Washington counties, assign court “mediators” to work with parents during and after litigation.
In Montgomery County, the Court will appoint a Parent Coordinator for good cause upon Motion by either party or by its own initiative to assist the family in developing or, more typically, implementing the parenting plan. According to Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ann N. Sundt, the Court has been appointing Parent Coordinators for approximately 3 years now and there have been great successes. The Court will issue a separate Order outlining specific parameters for the Parent Coordinator, including number of sessions, goals, whether there is confidentiality with the Parent Coordinator and whether the Parent Coordinator must report back to the Court. In addition, the parents may be required to sign a contract with the Parent Coordinator regarding payment of costs, expectations and when the Parent Coordinator may be terminated and/or resign. In some cases, the Parent Coordinator may be given decision-making power to resolve the parties’ disputes. However, the Court always has the final say over custody and visitation issues.
Judge Sundt points to Kennedy v. Kennedy, 55 Md.App. 299, 462 A.2d 1208 (1983), as giving the Maryland Court the power to appoint a Parent Coordinator. Kennedy allows the Court to continue jurisdiction and to order counseling in custody cases and Judge Sundt believes that “appointing a Parent Coordinator is an extension of this power.” On the purpose of Parent Coordinators, Judge Sundt says that “the focus of a Parent Coordinator should be to teach the parents how to communicate gently and courteously and to teach them how to get what they want without enflaming the situation. The problem that arises with appointing a Parent Coordinator is when the parents cannot suspend their conflict to use the Parent Coordinator effectively.”
Parent Coordinators are not the answer in every case. However, as judges, masters and practitioners strive to help families resolve conflict and protect children, the trend towards parent coordination is a positive one, offering an alternative for dispute resolution in cases where parents cannot resolve custody and co-parenting issues by themselves.
Contributing editor is Karen P. Freed, LCSW-C, BCD, with The Bethesda Group in North Bethesda, Maryland, a clinical social worker and mediator who often serves as a parent coordinator. Donna Nicholson Ersek
is a matrimonial attorney with the law firm of Gimmel, Weiman, Ersek, Blomberg & Lewis, P.A. in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
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