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Tuesday, February 6, 1973
University Daily Kansan
Home Aids Troubled Girls
Less than a block from the Topeka Country Club is an imposing brick home. In the driveway are two late model cars. The door is open.
A sign that reads "Please ring before entering" is the first indication that this is not a privy's residence but the Florence of their mother for unwed mothers and "troubled teens."
"Secluded, sympathetic care" was the "motto of the home's first director and is still the basis of the care offered to girls who come here. But according to Carol Mesig, current director of the home's Criticism group, the focus should be on the individual needs of each girl.
"Pregnancy may be the problem or one of the problems of a girl who comes here," she said. "As one of the two licensed maternity services in the state, we offer the continued schooling, intensive counseling and neutral counseling." In her own young girl who is pregnant and unmarried."
IN THE 42 years of its existence, the home at 360 Western has cared for hundreds of girls. Most have been between the ages of 5 and 18, most are pregnant and most have been single.
But as Mesig points out, "You cannot generalize about these girls. Every case is
Girls have come to the home from every social class, and have varied in age from 13 years old to 52.
And under the newly-instituted "Troubled Teens" program, a girl is no longer in high school. She has services at the home. One third of the 15 girls currently in residence are nonpregnant teenagers who are there because they have emotional problems at school or at home.
Although Topeka's Crittenson home was built specifically as a facility for unwed mothers, it is not the only one.
and residential location offer a homelike atmosphere to the girls who live there. The three-story structure provides adequate living space. An average of 20 girls live there at a time.
ITS ROOMS include a spacious third-floor recreation area, offices and conference rooms, a laundry, a workroom and a classroom.
On the second floor of the home are the girls' bedrooms, many of which are decorated with the bright bedspreads and the animals suggestive of a college dormitory.
On a nightstand in one of the rooms is a stack of diapers and a yellow infant suit.
"Some of the girls buy things for their babies," Mesig explained. "Those girls who decide to relinquish their children may send the things along with them. Sometimes they get to give birth and a baby ring to be given to her child when it is age as she will know that she cared."
On the main floor of the house is the postpartum room, used by the girls when they return from the hospital after their babies are delivered.
GIRLS NORMALLY spend the final three months of their pregnancies at the home. According to Mesigh, they are seldom bored.
"The girls are kept busy," she said. They don't at around waiting for things to go on.
The girls are awakened at 7 a.m. on weekdays, Mysaid said, and after preparing for school they sit down to a family style breakfast in the common dining room.
Residents of the home are able to continue their education in a special school for pregnant teens located in a nearby church. The school is staffed by nine teachers from two Topka school districts. They currently instruct 55 girls.
According to Mesigh, the school was
begin in 1988 as an alternative to private tutoring for pregnant teenagers in the Topeka area who were not able to attend public schools.
"It is cheaper and more effective to teach the girls in bulk than to provide homebound teachers," she said. "And it gives the girls an opportunity to talk with other pregnant teenagers and benefit from the school's emphasis on health care as well."
"WE TRY TO teach parents for those girls who decide to keep their babies," she continued. "There is a high percentage of abuse and neglect among unwed mothers who do not know how to care for their children."
Health care classes at the school include instruction in prevent post-natal care, child feeding and nutrition.
The Crittent home also offers courses in typing, shorthand and other business skills for girls who already have their high school diplomas.
Appointments with social-service case workers and obstetricians are a regular part of the girls' schedules. A nearby shopping center offers Crittleton residents spend money they have earned in a baby-sitting program sponsored by the home.
IN ADDITION, an art teacher comes to the home two nights a week to instruct the girls in macrame, pottery-making or another of 15 or 20 art media, and Red Cross volunteers visit the home to lead the girls in recreational activities. Through an arrangement with a local theater, the girls may attend a free movie once a week.
Each girl is also assigned duties which she must perform around the house, Meshig said, such as helping to prepare meals and preparing it is required to keep her own room clean.
Most of the girls who come to the Critten-
See HOME Page 8
Mesligh chair an informal afternoon staff meeting. Sherry Baer Hatch (from left) and Ruth Fry Hatch (from left), my housemother, and I
while Eileen Henry (top left), the home's nurse, and Richa Morris (top right), assistant director, discuss other needs for the girls.
Hartenberg listens to the problems of one of the girls. Social work is part of the Criterion services to prepare the girl either to keep or relinquish her child.
text by MYLA STARR photos by ED LALLO
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Henry teaches a health preparedness class in the recreation room of the home. The girls are told what to take to the hospital to make their stay easier.