KID INVOLVEMENT HELPS ADDICTED MOMS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Drug- and alcohol-addicted women who involve their
children in their treatment programs are less likely to continue
abusing substances and committing crimes, according to a report
released Thursday.

The national study also found that women who entered treatment while
they were pregnant had far fewer premature or low-birth-weight babies
compared to untreated alcohol or drug abusers, and infant mortality
rates were substantially reduced.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
surveyed over 5,000 women across the country from 1993 to 2000.

Besides trying to prevent substance abuse, many treatment programs
focus on improving women's physical and mental health and providing
job training.

``I was doing heroin, smoking cocaine, selling my body - doing things
I wasn't supposed to do. I was hopeless and useless and I saw no way
out,'' said Jackie Hinton, who graduated from a program at Seabrook
House in Seabrook, N.J., with her two sons in 1996.

``Now, I'm not just living, I'm existing,'' Hinton said. ``My
children hug me, tell me they love me, and tell me they're proud of
me. And I didn't used to be proud of myself.''

The study found that women who stayed in a program for more than
three months were more likely to stay off drugs and alcohol, stay
employed and keep custody of their children, and less likely to be
arrested.

Rebecca Taylor, vice president of treatment services at Seabrook
House, said that since kids are often in foster care when their
mothers seek treatment, the mothers tend to drop out if they can't
see their children. She said that besides providing treatment,
Seabrook House teaches women parenting skills.

``We have children who are the most difficult to parent with parents
who have the most difficulty parenting,'' said Taylor. ``Chemical
dependency is costly, but it can be treated. It reduces other costs
and salvages this country's families.''

Seabrook House also provides prenatal, pediatric, physical and mental
health services, as well as vocational training and legal advice.

``Keeping children with their parents while their mothers learned
parenting skills, as well as how to live drug- and alcohol-free, is
itself a laudable goal,'' said Westley Clark, of the substance abuse
agency, at a press conference Thursday.

Tom Miller, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute,
a public policy research foundation, said, ``You need a little
caution when rolling something like this out on a grand scale since
it is based on a fairly modest study.''

He said that although the results seem promising, he doesn't think
the participants have been out of the study long enough to know
whether they have ``truly licked the problem.''

On the Net:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:
http://www.samhsa.gov

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy:
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/