HELPING ADDICT MOMS

Bring-A-Kid Care Has High Success Rate

Michelle Seliem didn't realize drugs were destroying her family until
it was too late. Last year, when Seliem tested positive for cocaine,
her infant daughter, Hosna, was placed in foster care. Desperate to be
reunited with her daughter, Seliem entered a year-long outpatient drug
treatment program.

But six months later, she relapsed. This time Seliem knew that she
could lose Hosna forever.

So when her caseworker told Seliem about an inpatient drug treatment
center that allows mothers to participate with their children, she
jumped at the opportunity.

"I said as long as I have my baby with me, I will be able to do this
because I won't be worried about where she is or if anybody is
treating her bad," Seliem said, as she watched Hosna, now 19 months,
eat a cookie.

Opened in East Harlem in 1992, the Dreitzer Women and Children's
Treatment Center was one of the first facilities in the state for
women with mental illness and substance abuse problems - and let them
have their children under 3 with them. In New York State, there are
only 22 facilities, including Dreitzer, that cater to women and children.

The Dreitzer program, which provides a supportive, safe environment
where women can maintain abstinence, experience recovery and learn
parenting skills, was designed for women who considered treatment but
often were deterred by the threat of being separated from their
children, said Jane Velez, president of Palladia, a nonprofit agency
that runs the Dreitzer Center.

If a mother knows that to enter a drug program, she has to give her
child up "that may be the last straw," particularly if she's already
given up other children, explained Velez. About 80% of the women who
enter Dreitzer successfully complete the program, which takes from a
year to 15 months. In that time, Velez said, the women become
self-sufficient and break the cycle of dependency.

Seliem said she thinks the reason why so many women finish the program
is because they are with their child.

Stabilizing the Family

"There's no way you could be in a program without your child," she
said. "You'd be worrying too much about your baby."

Program Director Sharon Dorr said it also stabilizes a
family.

"Check your statistics - no one is adopting those children," said
Dorr. "Those children remain on the state roster until they are 18,
19. So the state is putting out money, you might as well stabilize
this mother during the 12 months, and then let her reunite with those
three, four kids in foster care."

There are several ways a woman can enter the six-story facility. She
can be mandated to by the criminal justice system, usually because of
a nonviolent drug offense; referred by the Administration for
Children's Services; sent from a drug-related program that doesn't
offer child services or self-referred. Pregnant women in their third
trimester also are eligible.

Staffed by 40 full-time workers, including licensed social workers and
drug treatment specialists, the center has space for 26 women and 26
children. Mothers are only allowed to bring one child, age 3 or
younger. Most of the woman, who are between the ages of 25 and 35,
have other children either in foster care or with relatives.

"A lot of these people in here are not bad," Seliem said. "They're not
bad mothers, they just need help like me. I just need help dealing
with the issues and having your baby with you helps. It really does. I
don't know where I would be if they took my baby."