Kentucky and Volunteers of America to launch pilot program for parents with addiction

Pregnant and in prison, Christina Compton desperately wanted to keep her baby rather than lose the newborn to foster care.

She got that chance when she was offered an early release if she would enter a Louisville non-profit residential program where she could keep her baby while undergoing extensive treatment for addiction.

"I told her, 'If it means I have a chance to be my son's mom, I'm willing to do anything,'" Compton said, recalling a 2017 conversation with a case worker that changed her life.

More than four years later, Compton, 33, is sober, has a job with Volunteers of America Mid-States, the non-profit agency that helped her, and is studying for a social work degree at Spalding University.

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She recently bought a house and, most importantly, kept custody of her son, Wyatt, 4, born a week after she entered the treatment program.

"I learned how to be a mom," said Compton, of her time at VOA's Freedom House for pregnant women with addiction. "I learned how to stand on my own two feet and be a strong, independent woman."

Now, Kentucky child welfare officials, in partnership with VOA, plan to expand that program as a pilot project in three counties in hopes of allowing more parents with addiction keep their children as they work on recovery.

"This is a great day for Kentucky," said Marta Miranda-Straub, the state commissioner of social services, speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol.

Under the pilot project, VOA will offer its services in Clay, Lincoln and Hardin counties to help keep more families together and children out of foster care.

The program will be new to Lincoln and Hardin counties, and VOA will expand services it already offers for pregnant women and others with addiction in Clay County.

Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican from Clay County, said the project comes amid rising substance abuse throughout Kentucky that all parties must work to combat.

"This is not a Republican or Democratic issue," Stivers said.

Rep. David Meade, a House Republican leader whose district includes Lincoln County, described the VOA program this way:

"Its message is simple," he said. "Help Kentuckians heal and help Kentucky families stay together."

With alcohol or drug use a factor in a majority of Kentucky's child welfare cases, it's important try to find new ways to avoid placing children in foster care, said Jennifer Hancock, CEO of VOA-Midstates, which covers Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Indiana.

"Nobody seeks family separation," Hancock said. "It is traumatic, it is heartbreaking and it is expensive."

Tuesday's announcement comes amid growing strain on the the Department for Community Based Services, the child welfare agency, as an increasing number of state social service workers are leaving their jobs, citing low pay and overwhelming caseloads of child abuse and neglect.

Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said Tuesday the pilot program won't solve the staffing problems his agency is trying to address but will provide more options to families it serves.

"It helps relieve some of the pressure," he said.

Kentucky has one of the nation's highest rates of child maltreatment, and addiction is a common factor in cases of child abuse and neglect, along with mental illness and poverty, Miranda-Straub said.

Hancock said she believes the pilot project will offer some relief to those workers and eventually could expand to other counties.

Hancock said the goal is to avoid the "remove-and-refer" model where state social services officials, with scarce resources, remove children to foster care and refer parents to treatment or other services.

State workers have said they worry about endangering children by leaving them in homes when they are too overloaded to monitor their safety.

Kentucky has launched the federal Families First effort meant to focus resources on programs such as drug or alcohol treatment and counseling before children are removed, reducing foster care placements and keeping families together.

While foster placements have declined this year to about 9,100 children from a high of more than 10,000 last year, more such efforts are needed, Hancock said.

That's where she believes VOA can help.

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Based on the Freedom House model VOA operates in Louisville and in Clay County, pregnant women get a safe place to live with their babies while undergoing treatment for addiction and trauma most have experienced. The agency also offers extensive substance abuse services.

Under the pilot program, VOA clinicians will work alongside state social service workers in the three counties to assess clients VOA believes it can help though a Freedom House approach.

The goal is to identify parents ready for change and willing to undergo treatment to keep their families together, Hancock said.

The state will award VOA a $331,000 contract to launch the program in the three counties starting this year. It includes funding for a University of Louisville researcher with the Kent School of Social Work to monitor the program and document its results.

VOA believes the results will show cost-savings to the state, as well as avoiding removals of children to foster care and better outcomes as parents work to overcome addiction, Hancock said.

Compton, who works with women entering VOA's Freedom House in Louisville, said she understands too well the "remove-and-refer" model often used in social services.

She experienced it with her two older children as her use of alcohol and drugs led to legal problems that would eventually land her in prison for a probation violation over an alcohol-related conviction.

"The child's in danger so let's remove the child and work on the mom later," Compton said, describing her previous experiences.

It didn't work for her despite her efforts, Compton said.

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Compton placed her two older children with relatives while trying to follow directives of court officials and social workers to get sober. But she had little success overcoming her substance use that she said began as a young teen after her mother died.

"I had been in and out of treatment centers but nothing ever stuck until I got to Freedom House," she said.

There, for the first time, Compton said she got more intensive therapy for the loss and trauma in her life that included domestic violence. She also got education about addiction.

"Once I learned addiction was a disease, it made sense," Compton said.

Compton said she believes many others can benefit from the program that helped her. Being able to keep their infants is a powerful motivation for pregnant women, she said.

"That was a very dark time in my life," she said. "To say I was scared and afraid and lonely is such an understatement. The only thing I wanted in the world was to be my child's mother."

Reach Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4228. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky, VOA to launch assistance program for parents with addiction