Addiction

Addiction is a major factor in children being placed in foster care. Many parents struggling with addiction fear that reaching out for treatment will lead to a child welfare investigation, yet living with addiction also puts kids at risk. Stories in this section offer guidance and information on getting clean, repairing relationships with children affected by addiction, and knowing your legal rights in seeking treatment.

New Resource Alert: Little Creek Recovery

Little Creek Recovery is an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center located in Pennsylvania. Their main goal is their patients’ long-term sobriety and health. With a multitude of treatment programs, they offer support and resources necessary to maintain a healthy and addiction-free lifestyle.

For more information, you can visit their website: littlecreekrecovery.org.

‘Your Mother Doesn’t Want You’

Negative comments left my children confused and scared.

One day when I was visiting my two youngest children, they asked me, “Mommy, where do you live?”

“Mommy lives in a hospital for now until she gets stronger,” I said. In fact, I was in a drug treatment facility, but I didn’t want my children to know. They were only 6 and 7. I thought they were too young to understand.

Called a ‘Crackhead’

Then, during an overnight visit, … Read More

Slowing Down in Life

Drugs got between me and my son.

Before my son came along, I was with different women and partied all the time. I was smoking marijuana and using cocaine once in a blue moon. I held down a good job but I also liked to have a fun and forget my responsibilities.

I knew things would change when I became a father, but I never expected that my partying might put my son in jeopardy.

Our Baby … Read More

Paying It Forward – As a peer mentor, I help fathers and change the system

Interview with Dustin McClard 

When child protective services entered Dustin McClard’s life in 2014, he was using and selling drugs, and facing the possibility of prison. His twins were removed shortly after birth and remained in foster care for three months while he went to treatment.

Now McClard works as a peer mentor at a family service agency in Portland, Oregon. He spoke to Rise about how his mentor, Tim, helped him get sober and … Read More

A new bill would allow opioid-addicted parents to get help without losing their children

I started smoking crack in 1980 after I was hit by a drunk driver and became disabled. That was a real trauma for me.

After the accident, I was ashamed of my body. The damage to my hip caused me to walk with a severe limp. I just wanted to hide. Crack helped me do that.

Because of my addiction, my two middle children were placed in the child welfare system for three years. My youngest child … Read More

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