NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — May is National Supervised Visitation Awareness Month and Kat Brylie-Napier with BrightHouse notes that unless you are a part of such an agreement, you probably don't know what it is.
"Supervised visitation is when a non-custodial parent, whoever the child is not living with, meets up at a third party neutral location and gets to spend time in a risk free, safe environment with somebody just kind of sitting there and watching," Brylie-Napier said. "That's just to make sure that everything is going okay, there's not conversations that a child doesn't need to hear and make it so that they can just really enjoy their time together, versus maybe in an environment where the two parents could see each other and start screaming at each other, because they are not getting along at the moment."
It's not just for little ones, either.
"We have kids as young as about six months old," Brylie-Napier said. "We also have a child that is seventeen. You don't expect for there, really to be teenagers. A lot of times, when you think about this, you often think about little kids. Teenagers are a lot more opinionated, as we all know. Sometimes, it's having that third party and that neutral person there, makes them a lot safer, especially if there's been issues with that parent in the past."
There are many reasons why a court appointed special advocate or a judge might refer a couple for supervised visitation.
"One of the ones that we see quite a lot is just, the divorce is messy," Brylie-Napier said. "Currently, the two parents are just not getting along. Every time they see each other, it's a snarky comment. It's, they don't like the new partner. They don't like what that new person's doing with their lives. It causes arguments. The children don't really need to be around that. It offers them the chance to take care of that. We also, unfortunately, do see some parents who are unfortunately dealing with some mental health problems, that may be untreated, or they are still going through trying to get a treatment that works. It allows them the chance to be doing that, without the other parent making comments about how they are not a fit parent because they have these mental health issues. Unfortunately, we do also see drug problems, as well. With the drug problems, often times, it's, you know, right now they're not a safe parent to be around 24-7, but if they are working on getting sober, this gives them a chance to see the child while they are working through that part of their recovery."
If you have more questions, you can call Brylie-Napier at BrightHouse at (620) 665-1471.