FALL 2007

By Kathleen Welsh Beveridge

This spring, The Bucks County Women’s Fund made a grant of $4,000 to Aldie Counseling Center for “New Moms in Recovery,” a program to help new mothers and pregnant women who have been or are addicted to opiates. Here is an inside look at how this grant is helping vulnerable women and children in our community.

She is a woman in transition in many senses of the word. Her body is changing by the second with the new life inside her. And she has made the significant mental transition from a woman addicted to opiates to a woman in recovery because she has taken the first step, walking through the door of Aldie Counseling Center in Doylestown.

She is between the ages of 19 and 33, is single and does not have the support of a partner. She and her other children are near-homeless—they are sleeping in someone else’s home.

She has a tough road ahead with many choices to make and a lot hangs in the balance. She knows that if she doesn’t make a change in her life, she will most likely lose her baby when he is born along with her other children. She has decided to try for a different outcome.

She is vulnerable, and everywhere she feels the stigma of the pregnant addicted woman as she tries to navigate the labyrinth of the healthcare system to get what she and her children need.

A Lucky Day
It was a lucky day when she was referred to Aldie Counseling Center. At Aldie she can receive pharmacotherapy—the word for methadone maintenance that, studies show, adds an average of 25 years to the life of an opiate addict and is the only available treatment for pregnant women with this kind of addiction. Aldie is one of only two pharmacotherapy programs in Bucks County and is the only one that serves people without insurance.

The treatment stabilizes her pregnancy and enables her to begin recovery. She is assisted in obtaining medical assistance the fast way, through Healthy Beginnings at Doylestown Hospital. She connects to prenatal care. She links to other women’s groups that provide information about birth control and how to safely manage her own sexuality.

A peer mentor program matches her with another pregnant woman, one who is not addicted but who knows how to talk with her about her goals and challenges. She attends a parenting program that teaches her about developmentally appropriate discipline for all of her children. And she receives food vouchers to help her eat and feed her family well as well as baby things to help her get ready for her son. She learns how to make good choices for herself and her family.

A Stable Lifestyle
The counselors at Aldie know the value of these services to pregnant women. “Because we can provide these services up front, the children born to these women may not be removed from their homes. Their mothers will know how to provide for them. They will know what they need and how to get it,” said Shareene Berti, MSW, a primary therapist who is spearheading the New Moms in Recovery Program at Aldie. “We are helping women move into a stable lifestyle for themselves and their kids.”

According to Aldie Counseling Center’s Executive Director, Michael Ratajczak, the Bucks County Women’s Fund grant is helping the organization to focus on and enhance its protocol for serving pregnant women with opiate addiction. It bridges Aldie services to other services in the community, giving these women the pride, structure, and resources they need to make good decisions for themselves and their families. It is also supporting the work of Aldie’s counselors to educate health professionals on how to treat women in this situation with dignity while helping them acquire the assistance they need to turn their lives around.

Since its founding in 1977, Aldie Counseling Center has been a leader in the treatment of those struggling with alcoholism or other drug dependencies. Aldie’s programs have touched the lives of thousands in Bucks County, helping clients and their families learn to lead healthy and more meaningful lives. Central to its services is the core belief that chemical dependency is a physical, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral illness from which people can recover. Aldie provides the tools for that recovery.

Fall 07 Newsletter PDF