Program Gives Addicted Mothers a Second Chance

Michelle Duron was an addict, and even impending motherhood couldn’t stop the Oxnard woman’s daily routine of marijuana and methamphetamines.

Two days after her delivery last December, Duron, a drug user since age 14, had to face a Ventura County Superior Court judge because her son, Angel, was born with traces of illegal drugs in his system.

The mother of three was given a choice: enter a rehab program for drug-addicted moms or have her children taken away.

Duron’s second chance was provided by the Drug Dependency Court, an offshoot of the Ventura County court system intended for women who had exposed their newborns to drugs or alcohol. The program will soon celebrate its first anniversary.

Women assigned to the court enter a free, one-year program. Participants must remain off drugs or their infants will be placed in foster care or with a relative until they can prove they are clean.

Operated by the Superior Court and local social service agencies, the program starts in the maternity ward with doctors identifying mothers with addicted newborns and informing social workers.

Intense Treatment at Live-In Centers

The court requires intense treatment at one of two live-in rehabilitation centers in Oxnard, as well as weekly hearings before a judge who, along with a social worker, monitor the mothers’ progress.

Participants stay at either Prototypes Women’s Center Ventura County or Casa Latina Residential Recovery Home for Women, where their 12-step program includes group therapy sessions, parenting classes and other courses--such as anger management--tailored to their needs. They can either take their infants to sessions or have staff members or other clients baby-sit.

After six to eight months, the women go home or enter halfway houses and begin outpatient treatment programs, attend support-group sessions and meet with drug counselors three to five times a week. They must continue to submit to random drug tests.

So far, seven women have graduated from the program since it began last December. Another 15 are currently enrolled.

At least one woman was expelled after she sneaked out of her rehab center to do drugs with her husband; her baby is now with a family member.

“It’s very strict,” said social worker Dawn Rowland Summers of the Ventura County Department of Children and Family Services. “If you’re not going to work with us, we’re going to consider the safety of the child as a priority.”

Officials with the program said it’s too early to gauge its long-term success. But a nationwide study recently conducted by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Rockville, Md., found that about 60% of addicted mothers and pregnant women remained drug- and alcohol-free six months after completing similar regimens.

Women in such programs are freed from worry about who’s taking care of their babies. Having the infant nearby also promotes parent-child bonding and can give mothers another incentive to stay clean, experts say.

“These women are not taking drugs because they don’t want or love their children,” said social psychologist Paul Brounstein, a director with the affiliated Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, also in Rockville. “When you have a drug-dependency issue, your parenting skills are usually quite impaired.”

The creation of a local Drug Dependency Court was largely spearheaded by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Colleen Toy White.

In 1999, White said, she noticed an inordinate number of cases involving drug-exposed babies born to parents with long histories of substance abuse.

“I had women in my courtroom, before we started this, who would say, ‘I love my baby more than anything.’ And in two weeks they’d be back on the street using again,” said White, who was then the supervising family court judge.

She Says She’s Been Clean for Almost a Year

White collaborated last year with various county agencies--the public health department; Human Services Agency; Children and Family Services; and CalWORKS, a welfare-to-work program--to form the Drug Dependency Court, which uses guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Justice.

It’s been almost a year since Duron entered the program, and she says she’s been clean ever since.

Some days are more difficult than others, Duron said. She’s been forced to avoid friends who still use drugs. She also is learning to deal with the pressures of parenthood without turning to drugs, such as getting her children dressed and ready for school, taking them to routine doctor’s appointments, and driving her two oldest daughters to baseball practice.

And though Angel is healthy, Duron said she constantly worries he may develop health problems as a result of her exposing him to methamphetamines.

She also blames drugs for holding her back from things she thinks she should have achieved by now--such as having a good job or owning a house. She and her children live with her parents in a three-bedroom house.

But Duron said she has more confidence in herself now that she has completed the program. She is learning job skills, such as how to type and use a computer. She also plans to attend college to earn a degree, perhaps in physical therapy.

And she says she’s determined to stay clean.

“My children mean the world to me,” Duron said. “I really want to change. This is the first time I want to recover.”