Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jan 2002 Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) Copyright: 2002 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. Contact: http://www.knoxnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226 Author: Stacey Capps Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) KEEPING CHILDREN WITH PARENTS DESIRABLE GOAL Editor, Knoxville News-Sentinel: I am writing in response to the guest column by Richard Wexler of Virginia, "Helping parents at risk better than foster care." The column was a good one, in which information was relayed from a Florida study that showed crack babies fared better when left with biological mothers when the focus of treatment was on the mother. These efforts keep mother and child together without undue trauma to the child. I would like to point out that efforts such as this are taking place every day right here in Knoxville. Great Starts, a program operated by Child & Family Tennessee, has been successfully implementing these practices for a number of years. This program provides drug-addicted mothers and their children apartment housing on site at the program. The program additionally provides a therapeutic nursery and day care for the children. The day care operates under the day-care licensing guidelines of the state while focusing on the special needs of drug-addicted and/or drug-exposed infants as well as older children. The mothers receive drug treatment, parenting classes, individual therapy and 24-hour-a-day staff support. All of these services act to address the substance abuse issues of mothers, while allowing them to continue to be loving parents to their children. The goal is to help them help themselves for the betterment of the entire family. These ladies, of course, must successfully complete the program requirements while dealing with addiction and parenting. This is no easy task for them, but with the support of this program and its staff, many are successful. Testimonials from former clients of this program will move one to tears. Programs like Great Starts deserve recognition and support for the contributions they make daily to the lives of parents and children. No need to go all the way to Nashville to see the positive impact programs saving children from foster care can make. Stacey Capps, Powell - --- MAP posted-by: Lou King