TULSA, Okla. — As a grand jury investigation hangs in the balance, several families continue to search for an advocate because they say they face issues with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
2 News received more than ten calls and emails from individuals claiming the state agency is not protecting their kids.
Messages have said things like 'DHS is covering up abuse' or 'removes children from healthy households.'
That's the reality for one Tulsa mother, who asked to remain anonymous as she shared her story.
"I never saw my life as anything other than a mom," she said. "They want me to work on my depression to get them back, but not having my kids is just not helping that."
The mother of three said DHS removed her children from her home as she struggled with postpartum depression and wasn't keeping the house in order.
She was told it was only for a few days until she cleaned the home, but she said she hadn't heard from anyone in the department for two weeks.
“They told me from the get-go I wasn’t the safety issue, it wasn’t me that was the problem, it was the apartment," the mother said. "The apartment got done, so now they’re looking at it like I am the safety issue, so now I have to get supervised visitations, which shouldn’t be a thing because they already told me it wasn’t me."
It's been two months of heartache and little communication from DHS.
In that time, the mother told 2 News her case passed to three different case workers.
“The first caseworker I had was great at communicating, texted me all the time, but then the further it progressed down to different people, the less communication I got.”
- PREVIOUS REPORT >>> PETITION FILED: Advocates ask for grand jury to investigate DHS
With that, we searched for a different approach for this mother and other parents to get some answers.
After combing through the websites of other local child advocacy groups, we found resources with broken links, and the links that did work brought us back to DHS's website.
To get some answers, we walked into DHS's north Tulsa location.
They said all interview inquiries must go through their media phone number, and they didn't have anyone in-house to speak.
As for this mother, she is left with little intervention and has been told she will be without her children for up to six months.
“I feel as if DHS could put their resources into kids that actually need it and not kids that are happy, healthy, fed, taken care of," she said. “It’s the worst, because when I see my kids, and I have to leave them, they’re all crying, I walk away crying, and I'm about to cry now because of it. It's just heartbreaking to watch your kids' heart break."
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