Pubdate: Sun, 10 Feb 2008
Source: Birmingham News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2008 The Birmingham News
Contact:  http://al.com/birminghamnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Author: Dave Parks, News staff writer

CHILDREN OF DRUG ADDICTION FACE RISKS BEYOND DRUGS

Last fiscal year, 621 Alabama children ended up in foster care 
because of substance abuse by parents, according to the state 
Department of Human Resources.

In about the same period, the Lovelady Center, a halfway house and 
addiction treatment center in eastern Birmingham, helped mothers get 
about 100 of their children out of foster care. Most of the women had 
lost custody of the children because of drug addiction.

Reuniting children with mothers is a challenge, said Tracy Mullican, 
director of development for the Lovelady Center. "Look at the trauma 
these children have been through."

That's why Lovelady Center established a day care center for younger 
children and a youth group for older children, she said. There are 
plans to start a Head Start program, too.

Felicity Blunt, a residential child therapist at Olivia's House in 
East Lake, works with children whose mothers are being treated for 
addictions at that treatment center. These children often suffer from 
attachment disorders - insecurity caused by being moved around too 
much among caregivers.

Olivia's House provides residential treatment services for women and 
their children who are caught up in the whirlwind of addiction. "It 
affects the family as a whole," Blunt said.

She said children often feel responsible for a family breaking up. 
Financed by grants, she works with the children to make them feel 
needed and accepted.

"They take a bulk of the blame for their mom's addiction," she said. 
"I think people are just now starting to take a look at how if 
affects the children."

Separated at Birth:

Melissa Bruce, a graduate of the addiction treatment program at the 
Lovelady Center, knows what it's like to lose a child because of 
drugs. She was hooked on crack, and two years ago her third child, a 
daughter, was born with cocaine in her system.

"I was real bad with my addiction when I was pregnant with her," said 
Bruce, now a caseworker at the center.

As required by law, the hospital notified the state Department of 
Human Resources, and the infant was put in foster care.

Barry Spear, a spokesman for DHR, said in cases such as this social 
workers attempt to place the child in the custody of a relative, but 
if that's not possible, the child is put in foster care.

"Family unification is our goal, but it can't always be accomplished," he said.

Bruce said she has been drug-free for two years, and her parents went 
to court to help her regain custody of her baby. The girl is now 2 
and appears to be doing fine.

Prenatal exposure to drugs isn't that unusual. Some national studies 
estimate it happens with 10 percent of children; a large study in 
Alabama during the 1990s showed that more than 8 percent of pregnant 
women tested positive for illicit drugs.

Over the years there have been panicky reports about crack babies, 
but studies are beginning to show that children born with cocaine in 
their systems aren't doomed to a life of learning disabilities and 
social dysfunction.

Michael Lewis, a professor pediatrics and psychiatry at the Robert 
Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J., is leading a 
long-term study of children whose mothers were using cocaine while 
pregnant. He said people should keep the problem in perspective.

"Fetal drug exposure does have an effect, but it's relatively small," 
he said. If people are really worried about a child's welfare, he 
said, they should consider the child's living conditions and access 
to health care.

"If you had a pie and wanted to slice up the effects, I would say 
environment is 80 percent, medical risks 15 percent and drug exposure 
probably 5 percent," Lewis said.

His studies have shown that mothers of drug-exposed children are 
likely to be poor, undereducated and single, have other children and 
live in inadequate homes in bad neighborhoods. Taken together, those 
factors have the largest impact on a child's welfare and development, 
Lewis said.

Next in importance is good health care for the mother and child, 
Lewis said. Without that, prenatal care is lacking, and conditions 
such as diabetes or heart disease can go untreated.

Lewis said children exposed to drugs in the womb do show some 
long-term signs of their experience, but these often are fairly 
subtle conditions, given the wide range of behaviors exhibited by 
youngsters. In general, he has found drug-exposed children have 
difficulty regulating their emotions and controlling inhibitions.

These usually are not debilitating problems, and can be overcome with 
early intervention and education; unfortunately, money is seldom 
available to address these needs, he said.

Returning to School:

Bruce is now a single mom with three children. One of her children 
was born with a severe birth defect, but that child was not exposed 
to drugs in the womb, Bruce said.

So Bruce is going back to school hoping to someday get a good job to 
support her family.

"It's a hard struggle being a single mother," she said. "I'm hoping 
and praying with everything I have that now that I'm clean I can stay 
clean and be a part of my kids' lives as their mother."
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