SAVING CHILDREN BY GETTING THEIR PARENTS OFF DRUGS

Program fights infant mortality with education, hope

OAKLAND - While working as a nutrition counselor in some of the East Bay's
toughest neighborhoods in the early 1980s, Majeedah Rahman saw a link
between a then-skyrocketing infant mortality rate and widespread drug abuse.

She decided to use her skills as a health educator and community organizer
to work to save children's lives by getting mothers off drugs.

"Oakland was right behind New York and Chicago in terms of infant
mortality," Rahman said. "And I just decided that something needed to be
done - too many babies were being lost in their first year."

On Sunday, Rahman's Oakland-based organization, the Healthy Babies Project
Inc., celebrated 10 years of helping thousands of pregnant women and
mothers end drug addictions and start families.

Graduating from the program Sunday were Jobie and Gayla Morton and their
4-year-old son Jobie Jr. Their story illustrates the hope that the
residential drug treatment program gives families whose lives have been
ravaged by drug addiction.

Jobie and Gayla Morton each have alcohol addictions that span more than 20
years. Jobie Morton, 35, started drinking and using crack cocaine as a
preadolescent. Gayla Morton, 29, began drinking at age 8 and took up crack
six years ago.

While the Mortons care for their son, Child Protective Services took
custody of their daughter Jolisa when Gayla tested positive for drugs upon
her birth two years ago.

Completing the year-long Healthy Babies project is the Mortons' first step
in regaining custody of Jolisa and building the foundation for a new life
together.

"If not for this program we would not have our son, we would not have a
positive attitude, and we would not have been able to see all of the things
that we can accomplish," Gayla Morton said. The Mortons said they have not
used drugs or alcohol for a year.

The project, which began with a drop-in center at West Oakland's Acorn
housing development, has always aimed to help those with limited options.

"At that time there were no residential programs for women," Rahman said.
"There was that old mentality that treatment was for males with alcohol
problems."

Infant mortality rates in Oakland and Alameda County have improved in the
past decade, and Rahman said addiction treatment for women has been a factor.

In Alameda County, the 1996 infant mortality rate was 5.9 deaths per 1,000
live births, down from nine deaths per 1,000 in 1987, according to the
public health department. Oakland's infant mortality rate dropped from 11.3
deaths per 1,000 in 1987 to 8.1 in 1996, the most recent statistics available.

A maverick program when it began, the Healthy Babies Project again broke
with convention last year and invited men with children and/or pregnant
wives into the program.

Rahman said it was difficult for mothers to stay sober if their mates were
not.

"After the women receive all of the tools they need for recovery and
treatment they return to the same man who is either selling or using
(drugs) and the process starts all over again," Rahman said. "We need to
heal the whole family."

As well as helping couples kick their addictions together, the project
equips them to handle adversity and function better together to try to
prevent relapses as they re-establish their lives and families.

"Our strength is being together," Jobie Morton said. "We are more focused
when we are together . . . if we did treatment separately we would not be
on the same page, and it would be more difficult."

Gayla Morton said the program has helped the couple learn how to handle the
anger and frustration that comes with a relationship and to become better
parents.

"They teach you to understand why children do the things they do," she
said. "Instead of yelling at them, we have learned to explain things instead."

The tools the project offers come primarily in the way of education,
counseling and behavior modification coupled with strict rules.

Classes, which residents attend from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, feature
standard treatment courses in drug and alcohol education, relapse
prevention, and health and nutrition.

The project also includes subjects like women's issues, relationship
education, child and parenting classes, and the services of an
acupuncturist and yoga instructor.

Couples take several courses together which focus on managing anger and
resolving conflicts, but Rahman said the single most important aspect of
the program is for participants to be clean and sober.

To accomplish that goal, participants give up many of their basic rights:
They are randomly drug tested twice a week, they may not receive phone
calls for the first 30 days in treatment and they must be accompanied
anywhere they go for the first 90 days.

Rahman said the program - which has a 60 percent completion rate - has
grown from 30 graduates annually to 90, and currently costs about $400,000
a year to run, excluding medical and mental health payments and the food,
clothing and volunteer hours that are donated. The project's funding comes
from the city of Oakland, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development and private donations.

While the program may lack money - Rahman said it ideally needs a budget of
$1 million a year - it is often one of few options for expecting or new
parents with drug addictions.

John and Miae Duke entered the program in April after Miae tested positive
for crack cocaine the day she delivered John Jr. Alameda County Child
Protective Services gave her the option of going to the Healthy Babies
Project or having her child taken away.

Miae Duke, 31, said she had used speed since age 19 and became addicted to
crack three months after getting pregnant. John Duke had long been hooked
on alcohol and speed and knew that he needed to end his addictions if he
hoped to be a good father.

The Dukes, who were married while in the program, said their personalities
and their relationship have evolved since they stopped using drugs.

"I'm more demanding now that I am sober," Miae Duke said. "You don't care
about anything when you're on drugs, but now I have to focus on the future."

John Duke, who will soon spend his first Christmas in six years outside of
jail, said recovering from drugs as part of a family has many components.

"I'm glad we are doing this together because there is just so much to work
on," he said. "There's the baby and recovery and the relationship - it's
too much to do separately."

The next challenge for the couples is to find work.

Jobie Morton receives disability for a head injury and the Dukes both have
felony convictions in their pasts.

Rahman is working with local agencies to beef up the program's job training
component, but emphasized that getting off drugs in one year is an enormous
task in itself. "To be on drugs for 10 or 15 years and to be told you have
to come into a program in one year and you've got to get it together is
insane . . . it's very difficult."

Checked-by: Pat Dolan