Drug treatment program helps mothers get sober

Initiative helps women stay with their kids during rehab (Austin American Statesman) 3/2/2009

Jeannie Mercado snorted cocaine for 21 years. She did it in her house, with her friends and near her children. She disappeared for days without a word to her family.

Last year, she was headed for jail and on the verge of losing her toddler son to Child Protective Services.

Then last March, Mercado entered Parenting in Recovery, a program designed specifically for Austin by local court and addiction experts to keep children out of foster care while their drug-addicted mothers get sober. Now after 11 months, she is the program's first graduate.

"It saved my life — mine and my kids'," said Mercado, now 34, who celebrated her graduation at a ceremony at District Court in Austin on Feb. 19.

Parenting in Recovery is a voluntary program that launched in February 2008 and is funded by a $2.5 million, five-year federal grant. It offers up to two years of help for mothers who have given birth to a drug-positive infant, have tested positive for narcotics while pregnant or are believed to have used drugs while young children were in the home.

Ordinarily, many of those children would immediately be taken into foster care, said Jimmy Ochs, chief operating officer for Austin Recovery, which participates in the program. Under Parenting in Recovery, the women have a choice: join the program or face losing their children.

"That's just devastating for the relationship and the bonding between the mother and the baby," he said.

But jumping into an unexpected stint in rehab can also be hard. The women — many of whom have long histories of domestic abuse and trauma — are suddenly thrust into sobriety and motherhood, neither of which they are prepared for, Ochs said.

"They are literally in shock," he said. "They're in the hospital, have just given birth and someone comes in and says, 'We have to take your baby away.' We get them in the most fragile condition."

Participants must spend an average of 90 days in Austin Recovery, a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehab center. They receive medical treatment for chemical dependency, mental health care, parenting classes and routine visits to family drug court with Travis County District Judge Darlene Byrne.

No more than two preschool-age children can live with the mothers at the treatment center.

After they leave Austin Recovery, the women and their children move into an apartment building run by Foundation Communities, a nonprofit that provides housing for low-income people. The women continue to receive job training, education, access to support groups and other services through Parenting in Recovery, Child Protective Services and Foundation Communities.

Over the past year, 22 women have participated in the program, says Chuck Roper, project director for Parenting in Recovery. Several others signed up, then promptly quit.

"Not all people are motivated for that kind of life change," he said. "I think it's scary for some women who never worked or lived independently or have never raised kids. It's like, 'Do you want to change your life 180 degrees?' Because that's what we're asking them to do."

After two decades of using cocaine, Mercado said she was ready to change.

Mercado says she started using drugs when she was 12 as an escape from family problems and adolescent boredom. By the time she was 18, she was married with two children and still using drugs — which she said contributed to the demise of that marriage. She remarried and had a third child, David, who is now a 2 years old.

Once, she missed her oldest son's birthday. Sometimes she left her kids with her mother while she went off to get high for a few days. Her second marriage collapsed, partly because of her addiction, she said.

In early 2008, Mercado — who was on probation for a drug conviction — failed a drug test ordered by her probation officer. CPS offered her a choice: Parenting in Recovery or go to jail and lose her son.

"I didn't have any hesitation," she said. "I was ready."

She and David settled into Austin Recovery for 90 days of structured routine. Staffers told her when to eat, when to sleep, what classes to attend and what therapies she needed.

She said she met women like herself and took comfort in their support. After finishing her inpatient treatment, she and her three children moved into a North Austin two-bedroom apartment. She got a job at Jim's Restaurant, went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings and talked to her sponsor daily.

Meanwhile, she said, her relationship with her children changed. She's more attentive. She can listen to them without being distracted, as she was when she used drugs.

Staying clean isn't easy, she said. But it helps to remember how drug use would affect her kids and her personal goals.

She wants to go school and get a job with regular hours. She wants to buy a house. And she wants to be a good mother, she said.

"I never looked toward the future," Mercado said. "I didn't care. Now I do."

aball@statesman.com; 912-2506