With a federally-funded pilot project, Aroostook Mental Health Care is hoping to help parents with addiction find recovery and also become better moms and dads.
In collaboration with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the nonprofit mental health provider AMHC has launched a pilot program for parents who suffer with substance abuse and who are at risk of losing custody of their children.
AMHC is the provider for Aroostook County in the statewide pilot program, dubbed the Maine Enhanced Parenting Project, and it could be the start of progress on the problems addiction has on childhood development, said Pete McCorison, AMHC’s substance abuse program director.
The pilot is “a good opportunity to see if combining an evidence-based substance abuse intervention with evidence-based parenting program can lead to better outcomes for parents at risk of losing custody of their children,” McCorison said.
By helping the parents recover and understand how to be good parents, the pilot is also aiming to improve the overall quality of life and long-term potential for the children, as childhood development can suffer in households with addiction, McCorison said.
Under the pilot, the DHHS will identify parents to refer to AMHC for the program, which will be based out of AMHC’s Houlton office. According to DHHS, the pilot will service up to 250 parents annually from sites in Bangor, Ellsworth, Houlton, Kennebunk, Machias and Scarborough.
The program includes 16 weeks of outpatient treatment, meeting three times each week for three hours, that’s paired with four to eight weeks of the Positive Parenting Program, meeting once a week for 90 minutes.
“It’s a significant commitment on the parent’s part,” McCorison said.
The outpatient treatment aims to address addiction with cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational coaching and group support, while the parenting program shows parents ways to guide their kids through their development with positive, encouraging approaches, McCorison said.
The parenting program offers ideas for guiding kids toward positive behavior and helps them understand their children’s developmental stages, he added. “Sometimes we ask kids to do things they may or may not be able to manage.”
McCorison said he expects at least 10 moms and dads will participate over the two-year grant. AMHC, DHHS and other providers will be tracking the program’s effectiveness and McCorison said there could be interest in expanding it, to help address the problems that drug addiction is having on Maine families.
“If we can demonstrate it’s effective, the hope is it will expand,” to be offered beyond the two-year pilot, McCorison said.
