New treatment model focuses on helping mothers overcome addiction

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - As the nation continues to struggle with the rise in overdose deaths, families are hurting, but a newer model for treatment is focusing on moms.

CDC numbers show that young adults between 18 and 25 are the most likely to use addictive drugs, which means many are young moms.

Those young moms such as Katie Caldwell need more than just addiction treatment, they need family treatment.

“I was using cocaine and alcohol,” said Caldwell. “I have to be okay to be their mom before I can be anything else.”

For years, Caldwell says she struggled to stay sober for her children.

This time she got sober with her children. Colton is three and Coby is one.

Now six months clean, she says it is all due to a program fast becoming a national model at Ohio’s First Step Home.

“First Step Home is an organization that provides substance abuse and mental health services to women with substance abuse disorders and alcohol abuse disorder,” said Naomi Sims-Satterwhite, the clinical director of First Step Home.

The program provides live-in treatment for mom.

But rather than taking kids of those struggling with addiction away, kids 12 and younger stay with them in recovery.

“It’s not just having their child here, we want them to have that skill set, to be that mom, to have their kids and keep their kids,” said Sims-Satterwhite.

The goal is to teach women the coping skills to stay sober while they are parenting.

Caldwell says she had never learned that.

“My mom was an addict so that kind of stemmed from there,” Caldwell said.

The focus of the program is to break the cycle. Nine in ten who have an addiction start that addiction before age 18. Most, about 73%, start with alcohol, while 37% end up using illicit drugs. Around 12% end up struggling with both.

“If you feel hopeless and lost, this place can bring your life back to you basically,” said Caldwell.

In the end, the goal is that these moms raise children who go on to live productive lives, but the best way to do that is to focus on their own lives.

“We are about recovery and when women recover well, when they remain clean, we know that they can be that mom they want to be,” said Sims-Satterwhite.

This program works with long term transition often up to two years.

Nearly seven in ten they do track stay sober beyond that transition, which is higher than the national average.