KEEPING CHILDREN WITH PARENTS DESIRABLE GOAL

Editor, Knoxville News-Sentinel:

I am writing in response to the guest column by Richard Wexler of Virginia,
"Helping parents at risk better than foster care." The column was a good
one, in which information was relayed from a Florida study that showed
crack babies fared better when left with biological mothers when the focus
of treatment was on the mother.

These efforts keep mother and child together without undue trauma to the
child. I would like to point out that efforts such as this are taking place
every day right here in Knoxville. Great Starts, a program operated by
Child & Family Tennessee, has been successfully implementing these
practices for a number of years.

This program provides drug-addicted mothers and their children apartment
housing on site at the program.

The program additionally provides a therapeutic nursery and day care for
the children. The day care operates under the day-care licensing guidelines
of the state while focusing on the special needs of drug-addicted and/or
drug-exposed infants as well as older children.

The mothers receive drug treatment, parenting classes, individual therapy
and 24-hour-a-day staff support.

All of these services act to address the substance abuse issues of mothers,
while allowing them to continue to be loving parents to their children.

The goal is to help them help themselves for the betterment of the entire
family. These ladies, of course, must successfully complete the program
requirements while dealing with addiction and parenting.

This is no easy task for them, but with the support of this program and its
staff, many are successful. Testimonials from former clients of this
program will move one to tears.

Programs like Great Starts deserve recognition and support for the
contributions they make daily to the lives of parents and children.

No need to go all the way to Nashville to see the positive impact programs
saving children from foster care can make.

Stacey Capps, Powell