WOMEN WHO ARE GETTING HELP CAN KEEP KIDS BY SIDE

PROVO — Women addicted to drugs or alcohol have a better chance of kicking
the habit if they have children, but those children usually suffer unless
their mothers get help.

And in Utah County, there's nowhere needful women with dependent children
can go.

A new treatment center in the old 42-bed Alcohol Recovery Center in south
Provo should change that. The facility is on property owned by Provo City
but leased to the Utah Alcoholism Foundation, which expects to open it for
women and children in January 2003.

"Most women with children who need treatment won't go into treatment
without their children," said Richard Nance, director of Health and Human
Services for Utah County. "In Utah County we haven't had an outpatient
treatment facility for women and children. We have a real need for this."

Nance said family drug court Judge Kay Lindsay has asked for his help.
"She's told me there is no place to put an alcoholic mother and child."

He subsequently applied for a $700,000 federal target and capacity
expansion grant from the Center for Substance Abuse and it was awarded in
October. The grant provides funding for up to three years for intensive
outpatient and specialized residential treatment for 12 to 80 clients.

Annually, more than 9,000 people in Utah County need substance abuse
treatment, of which 3,155 are women.

Once the recovery center is renovated to house women and children, steps
will be taken to re-create a "House of Hope" similar to the one that has
operated in Salt Lake County since 1992, said Valerie Fritz, president of
the Utah Alcoholism Foundation.

"Salt Lake County was really proactive once funds became available to do
this," Fritz said. "We were excited to be asked to run a 'House of Hope'
program in Utah County. The need's very great."

Fritz said up to 16 families could be served at one time in the new Utah
County facility.

The new center would serve families from Utah County and from central and
southern Utah.

Fritz said mothers addicted to drugs tend to abuse and neglect their
children. They expose them to a drug-addicted lifestyle that often includes
domestic violence and opportunities for sexual abuse.

The children are exposed to the chemicals used in cooking the drugs and
sometimes ingest them.

Sometimes the children are abandoned or unwanted.

"Part of the work we do is establish whether they want to keep their
children. There are some who shouldn't. We help the children find stability
and safety. We help teach them to trust adults," Fritz said.

Statistics show that addicted women with children fight harder to kick
their habits and with more motivation, Fritz said.

"Sixty percent can be rehabilitated because of the children involved," she
said. "Thirty (percent) to 50 percent without."

A typical stay in the "House of Hope" is 90 days. Children up to age 12 can
stay there with their mothers.

Utah County's Foothill Treatment Center is co-educational with no
accommodations for children built into it, Nance said. "It's just not
adequate."

"Part of what we're doing is treating the next generation," Nance said.
"It's some of the best prevention money we can spend because we cannot only
help the mothers kick their addiction but we can give them parenting
classes and counseling."