Tammy Minard, a long-time heroin addict now in recovery, is determined to turn her life around for her newborn son.
The 41-year-old mother of six says she is a different person than she was in the past -- in treatment, receiving counseling, involved in a healthy relationship and living in a Framingham-based program meant to help recovering families.
Minard recently left UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester with her youngest child. She exemplifies the fragility of many at-risk parents sent home with substance-exposed children. Like her, many mothers gave birth to children suffering drug withdrawal from methadone or other legal narcotics given to recovering addicts, local doctors say.
Minard realizes that recovery often involves setbacks and relapses.
“I’m praying it doesn’t happen again,’’ she says. “I have the best life ever. I’ve worked on myself and my emotional issues. I have a lot of support.”
It’s the state’s tough job to decide which children are safe at home, and which are not. Peter MacKinnon, president of the DCF chapter of the Service Employees International Union, said legal precedent states that drug use alone is not enough to keep a child from his family. To separate a family, the state must prove that drug use is negatively impacting the child, he said. Sometimes, he said, parents can be drug users and still function – although less likely with heroin and cocaine.
“Which is the worse evil, going into the foster care system or staying with families?” he asked. “You are always walking that tightrope.”
Most children go home only after state service providers make sure the family has a place to stay and are set up for help, he said. Sometimes parents must take drug tests as part of their program.
Health advocates say it’s these recovering families like Minard’s who need more resources to make it through the difficult times – especially during the first weeks and months when medically at-risk children are paired with adults whose use drug dependency can be triggered by stress.
Amy R. Sommer, a clinical coordinator at the Jewish Family & Children's Service in Waltham who works with parents in recovery, said drug addiction is considered by many health practitioners to be a chronic disease that can flare up at any time. It is hard to predict when a relapse might occur, she said.
But Sommer said as a society we allow parents to take risks with children – from driving erratically to poor nutrition.
“They may relapse and do a drug once. They may relapse and go into full blown addiction,’’ she said. “There are risks that our society does tolerate. Otherwise we would perhaps be institutionalizing all babies.”
At the Sage House, a recovery program in Framingham where Minard, her husband Christopher and son are now living, about half the families end up successfully graduating, said its director Jesse Mellor.
Dedicated families like the Minards can succeed, said Sage House clinical director Krystin Fraser. However, she said she worries more about the many families living in homeless shelters, struggling with addiction, who lack resources and stable housing.
“A lot of the people who can benefit from treatment are getting no help,’’ she said.
Minard says she has suffered from a decade-long heroin addiction – at times leaving her homeless, jailed, and the victim of domestic abuse.
She lost one of her children – born with heroin in his veins -- to adoption. Concerned about her other children’s safety, she said she often voluntarily would send them to her mother for care when she was using or in jail.
Now Minard has realized that her past life hurt not just herself but her children, the oldest of whom is 25. She wants to be there for them – especially the youngest in her care. To stay healthy, she goes to multiple meetings a day, including anger management, counseling, and Alcoholics Anonymous.
“I do a lot of work,’’ she said. “I have a very good life today. I’d be selfish if I used right now.’’
