WEDU Interview; Nancy Hamilton - Operation PAR

Oh. The. Pope has a special presentation of w. we do you Tempus St. Petersburg Sarasota brought to you by these community minded partners. Some show Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by partners in prevention. And by viewers like you. Substance abuse and addiction are on the rise among women in America. The problem takes a heavy toll on society and most of all the children of these women. Many end up taking away from their mothers and put into foster care. But a unique program here in west central Florida is trying to change that. Please join us for a look at women and drug use in a w e do you interview with Operation pars chief executive officer Nancy Hamilton coming up next. Good.

Morning. Hello and welcome I'm Angie risky. It's estimated 15 million women nationwide use illegal drugs and six million abused alcohol. Over the next half hour you'll meet several women struggling to beat their drug addiction and hear about Operation par operation par as a drug treatment center in Pinellas County that allows women to have their children with them in rehab. It's a rare approach to a serious problem and one that experts say works better than traditional rehab. He's either fair or fairly achievement in recovery is a very strict program that requires these women to follow a tight daily schedule of meetings chores and therapy. Much of the time their children are right by their sides. The ladies live on a two acre campus called Park Village. They make a pledge to change their lives for themselves

and for their children. I knew that I wanted recovery I wanted to learn more about my disease and learn more about myself. So in the past I made a lot of mistakes. But. I've learned that I have five kids so I know it's time to straighten up. I can't play around like this but it's like my life is like a last chance. I'm leading by example. She's looking at me and she she saw me sober and she saw me use. And she sees the difference and she tells me how much she loves me now I'm not that she didn't love me then but she likes me better now. She didn't like Mommy when she was falling asleep or acting stupid. When people like park can step in and say. You know you do the right thing your child can come live with you. And I've seen so many women here and a link that I've been here turned their lives around. Well beating drug addiction is never easy but what makes operation part different and what

experts say improves the chances of success for these women is having their children with them. And joining me now to talk about that is Operation Parr CEO Nancy Hamilton Nancy thank you so much for joining us here today appreciate it. Glad to be here. Well this is not your typical drug treatment program. I think very few in fact the number believe is 4 percent nationwide actually allow women to bring their children into rehab absolutely years ago there were almost none that allowed that. And then there was a period of time when people became interested in children and women in that increase. But it's actually decreased over time until there are very few places. I think a lot of times it's. It's complicated. Another would you have to be trained staff you have to know what you're doing with both women and you have to understand that you've got children there and the way you structure the program you have to have developmental care for them. You have to see to the kids who go to public schools elsewhere you have to deal with the child welfare system grandparents.

So it can be pretty complicated. It's harder. It's much harder but it's better isn't it how much better how does it help or when it will be much better. First of all women all women you me all women are relational by nature. We care a lot about our relationships we often identify ourselves by relationships. Hi I'm Nancy I'm Bristol's mother. I'm Elizabeth's mother that sort of thing right. So women by nature wanted to be in a group or a family and they do care about their children. Even if there but if. Even if they're ineffective or bad parents they still care about their children. So having your children with you can be a great motivation to come to treatment. And in a way you don't really care why people come to treatment you don't want to hear. And it also keeps women in treatment so that they can get the longer they stay the better they get. And I maintain that responsibility of Syrians are there cheering for the child which is which is important. But most of all the child in the mother continued to bond and that bond is how a child begins to

identify with other human beings with themselves know who they are and and care about not just themselves and their mother but all people on earth. And it's very essential. How is it for the kids though is it tough for them sometimes this is pretty intense stuff dealing with drug treatment is it OK for them to see that. Yeah absolutely. Now remember your centers have to be conducive to that. In other words you have to watch things like language. You know that's not that's not proper. And it has to be child friendly and as you saw when you visited Park Village it's got cul de sacs it's got places a kids can ride their bikes. And on the weekend the children who live in the communities who are sometimes older come and spend it spend their weekend with their with their moms and their their younger siblings. And so it has kind of a family atmosphere we don't want children to be institutionalized we want them to feel like it was for a small child who's two all they know is that they're mothers and they're with their mom and it totally looks like a neighborhood you would know that you were in a drug treatment program.

Absolutely. Well let me ask you is is there a typical profile for the women at this drug treatment program or do they come from all walks of life. Oh they will they come from all walks of life I mean we've had doctors wives We've had people with professional degrees lots of nurses teachers. We've had people who grew up poor. One of the common traits of folks who come in is that there's almost inevitably been some trauma and you got to remember this is deep and residential. We also have outpatient and day treatment for women. They may be less along the severity continuum but when you get to residential it's usually because you have a pretty long history of drug abuse. You have some other complications could be mental illness along with your substance abuse. So you've got a pretty long history inevitably almost all of them have experienced some kind of trauma in their life either physical abuse mental abuse. A lot of times sexual abuse. So you come with trauma as well as addiction.

A lot to overcome there are recently as you mentioned I had the chance to spend the day at Operation Parr to see these ladies in action and they begin every day by reciting a creed affirming their desire to change. Let's listen to them for you. OK. Place where I can begin to love myself will require that the good news is as an expectation here as you say for Saturday mornings are a good day for you especially the way you use my imagination like you. You say you say wow. Well the one thing I walked away with there is just this feeling of their spirit and determination to really do this and that is very important to drug treatment and succeeding in Sampson.

Absolutely. In fact when the early research was done with women and children the the women who were who were randomized into the group that a lot were allowed to bring their children to treatment. About 70 to 80 percent of them maintained and kept control of their children in custody their children. When we followed them up no women none who were in the other group that could not bring their children would ever regain custody their children. And what we have to realize as a society is you just increased your cost for schools because you've got foster care. Delinquency juvenile justice kind of cost and ultimately criminal justice in the in the adult criminal justice world. So your best bet is to invest early keep the families together as much as possible and you have to remember that the women in the village they didn't they didn't overtly hurt their children. They they their addiction caused them to neglect to not be responsible for their children but generally speaking they don't let you have a chance at

this. If you've hurt your children in a physical way these women love their children I can see that when I was there that's for sure. What is the success rate that you see how do these women do when they get out of rehab. Well generally speaking people do very well. Now if you look at first time I go through treatment the first time about 35 40 percent of people just just fine with one shot the treatment. Then there's another group about 35 percent that may need a second time sometimes even a third or they may need to do residential and a longer period of aftercare than others. But generally speaking about 75 percent of people will do fine as you follow them up over time. Sometimes we get confused because there are 25 percent that may need multiple times a treatment and they may have lots and lots of problems mental illnesses other kinds of. Lot of rapes. Trauma those kinds of things and so treatment works that's probably the most in health care. It's probably

the greatest thing alive it certainly beats people of hypertension. People don't pay attention I pretend it is my job to recover. Well the tipping point is different for all women and that moment in time when they decide I will stop using. Let's hear from some of the women at Operation par about what made them seek out treatment. I've been sober for three and a half years when I was pregnant Tabitha. And. She was about three and a half and I started drinking so I didn't think I was an alcoholic. I'm. Not wrong. I started drinking I was a functioning alcoholic work to cook clean I'm still married own house did every everything but didn't stop drinking. When she was hired just because. I was sentenced. Do you see sentence I've done it to you why. I do know that it's like you jack me out.

Like when I was 18 I use a little marijuana. But I got in the habit I want to x to see the empathic OK but my main thing is to know we're selling drugs when I was a big problem since I was like 19 20. I was supposed to go to prison. For three years. And I was pregnant when her car died and I went to jail with one of the six AM when I got in jail so. I thought Oh right now want to prove I'm not going to get my baby and I know that the key is OK they're with my mom and my you know. On your head. I had a violation of probation. And I had a year and a half left of probation. And it was either go to prison. On a violation for five years or. A treatment program which really wasn't offered at first that was something that we had considered but. It was just up in the air. But when I found out that I could have my daughter with me.

I was like well this trial I really wasn't sure about it at first. OK but I really wasn't sure about the program at first. But I'm 36 and it's just it's time to grow up. My last drug of choice was crack cocaine and I've been using for 15 years. It made me lose everything that I had. My daughter was with my sister for two years lost the house and I just I was miserable. I was very depressed and didn't really want to live anymore. Usually. I have found out how to live without the use of drugs and alcohol. And. You know I learned how to become a more responsible mother. You know a better mother or more honest person and dependent woman. I love seeing the kids there it's just so real. Really. Well this is a pretty strict program that you guys don't mess around. Women are required to do jurors

work and really take account of each other and hold each other accountable soon. Tell me about that. Well I don't it's important because in Addiction Life is pretty chaotic and then the words you get up whenever you want to you wander around maybe you don't sleep for days and your children are subjected to that chaos you move from place to place all those kinds of things. So when you come to treatment a part of treatment is learning to live in a safe healthy way. And part of health is. Structure in your life. Well children need it even more. So we actually teach the women. There's a reason for this structure it isn't just to please us or make our programme it's so that you will learn that each morning we have to feed our children and we have to get them dressed for school and we have to take them to the nursery and we have to go do our work and take care of our homes. And so if you think of it as we are practicing in a treatment center what we need to do in real life.

So teaching them the disciplines for the skills of life so you know one of the other neat things that I noticed here is the peer led facilitation. Why is that so important. Well I think that all human beings when when like I sometimes think especially people who are with addiction think I'm the only one. No One Else Feels Like This. But when we get with our peers not profession. But with our peers professionals have a definite purpose here and we go. I'm not the only one there's a whole world out there waiting to be part of my support system so peer support and peer facilitation. We believe is is critical and if we think about people who don't have addiction problems. Your network of friends are what gets you through life through through death and pain and maybe illnesses or whatever. And so sometimes for folks who are coming through treatment it's the first time they've ever been able to. We have that peer network of support and I've been doing this 34 years and I've seen some of those folks have become brothers and sisters to each

other for all their life they've gone to each other's weddings and their kids call them uncle and aunts and they become a family long after they leave us. They really understand each other and are there for each other and accept each other. Yeah. Well let's look at the big picture here OK we're talking about women and drug use it's on the rise. Used to be that men use drugs more often than women but we're seeing the number of women using drugs growing. Why is that. Well I think there's a couple factors one is earlier onset of use when we start using early on in our life which we're seeing that 30 years ago people started using in their late 20s or early 20s mostly guys. Now now the average age of onset use is 9 10 and 11. Also when you start using tobacco alcohol those start really early. You're not really thinking clearly making good decisions. So where where we were girls were more protected for a longer period of time. They're not anymore

and used to be that a girl only got high the first time with the boy. But that's not true anymore sometimes. You know they get high with each other peers family members I mean that was always a shocker to me when family became the first person you used oh my goodness and you see in the suburbs too we talk about these narcotics Oxycontin things like that the soccer moms start using Well in any I could probably go into a nice gated community and I could come out with about 5000 prescription pills. I couldn't. Sometimes people have. They go to the dentist they get 12 like it and they take three and then they feel better. And what do they do. Stick it up in the medicine cabinets not locked up. So they have a kid who's 13 14 years old who says who's looking they hear it. I mean they're not you know they hear it out on the street and there it is or they go to the grandparents house and it's there and. And so we forget that you you would lock up poisons from your children but you

will not lock your prescription meds from them. Which is. STRAIGHT You know you want to let your kid eat lead paint chips but you won't keep your beer away from them which is a it is a poison for their brains. In other words even if you can handle it when you're an adult. A growing brain does not need any help with alcohol. And we talk about drug use and it does affect women more intensely than ever biologically physically. Women get addicted faster. They have more damage to their liver to their brain. They are more likely to become physically ill from their addiction faster than a male and there's lots of reasons different enzymes just physical body. So if they were just different women are different than men. And so yes it's much more serious for women. Is this the number one health issue facing women. I think it is. I think if we look at sheer numbers you know obviously it's devastating to people when people have you know breast cancer although

alcohol is associated with those kinds of things. It's the most common thing that we can do that no one will see us until we're in trouble. I mean drinking is perfectly acceptable and we don't know what happens when people are behind closed doors or when they're not around when you're not around. Doctors give prescriptions easily to women and so it's kind of that thing where in the beginning. No one notices that it's getting to that point then all of a sudden it's out of control. And that's why people have a stereotypical view of a woman who's addicted and there isn't one. What is the cost on society. Oh I think it's so it's such a ripple effect that we just. If a woman uses drugs during her pregnancy and there is there may be a multiplicity of things that that child that bit maybe will face could be learning disability it could be growing up in a home that's dysfunctional so that the child becomes disruptive in school. So it cost the schools more money

the child can in a sense grow up in a world that who's who's just who thinks crime is OK. Well now we've got the juvenile justice system then and you're adults. So you've got all of these things society needs for people to take care of their children and to raise them to be pretty good citizens who follow the rules right. And when that doesn't happen the ripple effect of cost is tremendous. So when you look at that cost or prison cost my God it is phenomenal. And you look at how much it cost to treat. Will women and children. Oh my good you are far better off treating women and children and treating pregnant women then you are allowing that thing to happen to where now society has a huge bill on their hands when we could have invested a little bit. And you talk about pregnant women you're really one of the very very few that actually allow pregnant women what is your treatment program. Absolutely. Remember if you use during a pregnancy it increases your risk to have high risk pregnancy and I restrain and kind of worry people.

We obviously want people in as early as possible. Earlier a woman gets into treatment when she's pregnant the more likely that child is to be born normal birth weight and have less problems. So obviously we do but we take will you take women pretty far along in their pregnancy. But most programs they can handle and they are enough women seeking treatment or is there still a stigma attached. Well I think there's always a stigma attached to women and drugs and alcohol. We don't like to see the hand that rocks the cradle as anything other than pure. We don't like to see our to think of our grandmother as being an alcoholic or an addict we don't like to think of our mother our onto our sister. Our daughter. We don't like to look at her. So sometimes we look away until they're pretty bad off when we might see our son and go boy that son's got an alcohol problem but we don't want to see our 15 year old daughter as having an alcohol problem. So I think it's the stigma is always there. Think of the words we use. Men brag about the fact they can drink you under the table where hardly

anybody ever says Geez you should beat my girlfriend she cannot drink any man and well you know we forget that we don't we in society we see that women women should be a certain way man. Well you know how they're so that so that I think about recovery when a man gets in recovery there's a lot of applause. You know yeah you're in recovery. But when women get in recovery there's a certain to what we're doing. Addicted to first place. In other words right. I don't get it quite as much applause we get over that hump to get more women to seek out treatment to get better. I think a couple of ways is one I would love for recovering people out there male female old young to speak up. I would like them to. Do you realize that they have accomplished a great deal and that society needs to hear from them that that society says oh well addicts are this kind but says but Addicks a recovering addicts are your doctors nurses teachers.

Your next door neighbor right there they're all over the place they're the people who. And so that if we started to see you know just like anything nobody's meant to be an addict nobody. The child said she's I want to be Batman Superman or I want to be a crack addict nobody talks like that right or thinks like that. And yet when they and those children you see in the village if we hadn't been there for them society would be really mad at them when they were a teenager. When they when they did something wrong. And they would've realized yeah but we weren't there for them when they were two or three. So take the shame away empower these women and that's why we're so grateful to the women who are speaking out today and telling us their stories. And what about those kids I mean seeing them there at par village just standing up and reciting the creed with their mom. What do you see day in day out from those children as their moms. Well actually the coolest part is that for most children who come to the village either you know at birth or or that they're in there specially in their pre preschool

kinds of things. Very few of them ever have to be put into special education as they get into kindergarten first grade. Very few that we and we've been doing this for you know 20 years I guess because they get their mother gets the help they need Of course we have a developmental center it's not a daycare center is developmental. So we work with the child on any learning or or developmental deficits that we see. We hook them up with all children's hospital and any any kinds of things that they need. So the child in a sense and the child has a brief moment in time where mommy is actually functioning well mommy's getting up she's fixing their breakfast she's kissing you know she's bathing them at night and kissing them goodnight and that in itself is like. Taking a breath for example it's normal and abnormal great. It's just a normal thing. And so the moms and their kids really come a long way. And how long does it take depends for some women it could be six months. It could be a

year some it could be a year and a half. It really depends on where you start with your diction but also your where your skills are. In other words we have a Pinellas County Adult Education school on property. So if you don't have an education or you need to even brush up on your math then you're going to school. So it just depends it depends on if you have a mental illness along with the things we've got to get that stable as we get your depression stabilized or other kinds of psychiatric disorder. So it just depends. Give me your takeaway message what do you want people to take away from the show. I want people to take away this that as a society the investment you make in people for any kind of alcohol and substance abuse treatment even if you don't personally care about them than care about yourself you will pay far less as a society if we pay attention to people early on and allow them to join society

and do what we want everyone to do. Take care your children. Fabulous Well Nancy I'm afraid we're out of time it's gone so quickly but thank you so much that we have that sound. The chief executive officer of operation par such an important issue and we appreciate your time here. Well Operation Parr serves more than 13000 people a year with its recovery and intervention services. If you'd like to learn more about Operation part call 1 8 8 part next or you can visit their website at Operation Parr dot org. I-Man Humoresque for all of us here at W edu. Thank you so much for joining us. Brought to you by these community did Martin same show Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by partners in prevention.

And by viewers like you. Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are escalating among American women. The problem takes a destructive toll on communities families and

especially children. But a unique program here in west central Florida is working to change that. Join me for a special w edu interview with Nancy Hamilton CEO of Operation par.