Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act

Floor Speech

FAMILY-BASED METH TREATMENT ACCESS ACT -- (Senate - March 15, 2007)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, substance abuse continues to claim victims, destroy families, and eat away at communities. Today, many communities in Illinois and across the country are struggling with the methamphetamine epidemic. Drug treatment centers in Illinois report an explosion in the number of people entering treatment for meth addiction. Public drug treatment providers have seen a 73 percent increase in meth treatment admissions in the last decade. Meth is having a particularly dire effect on families, tearing them apart and overwhelming our child welfare network. In 2004, more than half of the children entering foster care in some areas of rural southeastern Illinois were forced into the program because their caretakers were meth abusers. Meth use among adult women has very real and tragic implications for child safety, foster care, and family breakups.

It is the stories of these mothers that paint the real picture of the disease of addiction. Last week, I met an amazing woman and mother whose story clearly represents the need for family-based treatment services. Imani has been in recovery from drug addiction for over 5 years. Before that, she was in and out of treatment programs, making six consecutive attempts to break the addiction. She fought to find a treatment program that would meet her needs as a mother of three young children. While she was using and bouncing between failed attempts, she became pregnant with a fourth child. With four children and dwindling hope, she made one more stab at sobriety.

Imani found an addiction and treatment center that offered a family-based approach to treatment services. Five years later, Imani is sober, living happily with her children, including her fourth child who is now a healthy young boy and is currently on his school's honor roll. Today, she advocates on behalf of other recovering mothers and the importance of family-based treatment services.

As we identify new methods to combat the disease of addiction, we must consider the specific needs of families. When mothers seek out treatment to heal from their addiction, they face a difficult battle. The world of substance abuse treatment is not designed with the needs of families in mind, and though the general programs may be successful for single men and women, families struggling with substance abuse issues find few opportunities to find treatment and recovery.

Family-based treatment centers combine substance abuse recovery with mental health counseling, medical treatment, parenting, education, and legal services. These programs provide essential assistance to the entire family, rather than just the parent, and have proven to be extremely effective. Studies consistently show that family-based treatment increases long-term sobriety, educational enrollment, and gainful employment, along with decreased criminal activity and child development delays. Addressing the meth crisis through a comprehensive family-treatment approach provides a cost-effective alternative to incarceration and foster care and yields consistently positive outcomes in child well-being, family stability, and lower recidivism rates. A Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA, evaluation of family-based treatment programs in 2003 revealed that 60 percent of the mothers remained sober 6 months after discharge.

Family-based treatment acknowledges the important connection between a mother and her child. Many women cannot successfully go through substance abuse and mental health counseling if their children are excluded. More importantly, no woman should ever be forced to make that choice.

This is why I am proud that yesterday, Senator Coleman and I joined to introduce the Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act of 2007. This bill will expand, intensify, and coordinate efforts to provide comprehensive, family-based substance abuse treatment for methamphetamine addiction. Our bill will provide additional funding for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to award grants to programs that provide comprehensive, family-based substance abuse treatment for pregnant and parenting women. Throughout our entire Nation, there are only about 80 known family-based treatment centers. Two, the Women's Treatment Center and the program at Haymarket Center are in the State of Illinois. These grants will strengthen the work of these centers and provide opportunities for other centers to extend their services to additional mothers and their children.

The Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act also gives priority to programs serving rural and mental health professional shortage areas affected by high rates of meth addiction. The State of Illinois knows far too well the impact that the meth epidemic has had on our communities, especially those in rural areas. We need to strengthen services where the epidemic has made the biggest impact on the health of women and their children and where family-based treatment services are not readily available.

Finally, the bill provides assistance to organizations that help nonviolent offenders overcome their drug addiction. Many organizations provide comprehensive, family-based substance abuse treatment services to nonviolent offenders as an alternative to incarceration. These services are a successful model for the road to recovery and give families hope for the future. They are cost-effective and they yield consistently positive outcomes.

Family-based treatment services are a proven method for recovery for women with children, and we should make these programs available everywhere. Imani is just one example of the success of family-based treatment. I invite my colleagues in the Senate to support the Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act and to make this successful reality possible for other recovering mothers and their children.

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