Answer Addiction

Tag: drug court program

  • Drug Court Helped Man Turn Life Around

    Drug Court Helped Man Turn Life Around

    After struggling with drug addiction, a Missouri man was able to change his life with the help of a drug court program.

    A year ago, Casey Barbero was using drugs and getting into fights, a pattern that had defined more than half his life. When an argument with his father turned physical and the police were called, Barbero was ready to surrender.

    “I just sat there and waited for the police with the drugs on me. I knew it was the right thing to do. It was the right time,” he told The Missourian. Instead of being sent to jail, Barbero agreed to attend drug court, a program that connects people with treatment and jobs in an attempt to help them stay sober and out of jail.

    Nine months later, Barbero is the type of success story that the more than 3,000 drug courts around the country strive toward. 

    “He made up his mind from the get-go, ‘This is what I want, I want a different path in life.’ And he’s done that,” said Felecia Jackson-Qualls, a recruiter for Job Point, an organization that works with the Missouri drug courts to help people find employment. 

    Jackson-Qualls said that Barbero’s progress is inspirational and shows what can happen when the justice system opens doors rather than closing them for people who have struggled with substance use disorder. 

    “It brings tears to my eyes because I’m seeing where he’s coming from. And I see where he’s got to. When you see someone go through those different steps and those hurdles and you see them advancing, then we know we’re doing a good job. That makes all the difference in the world to me,” she said. 

    Barbero said that he’s eager to not even think about drugs, but for now he has to confront his substance use disorder each week when he reports on his progress in front of the court. 

    He said, “I pretty much am there now. I am reminded of it because I have to be for drug court. It’s good to remember, but I definitely don’t need to dwell on it.”

    Barbero now works in construction, and has dreams of owning a home and starting a family, things that seemed far away when he was in active addiction. 

    “I want to be in a place where I firmly know what I am, what are my goals for the future and my future plans. Right now, I have a good idea,” he said. 

    Although some people balk at the strict drug court program, Barbero said that the guidance and work requirements have been helpful. 

    “It’s better to be doing that than the stuff I was doing. I’m taking all that time I did waste and learning about things I’m interested in doing.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Year's Baby Highlights Mom’s Sober Year

    New Year's Baby Highlights Mom’s Sober Year

    The mother of the child, who is in early recovery, said that her daughter’s birth was the final step in what had been “a life-changing year.”

    Babies born on January 1 are always heralded as symbols of new beginnings, but one New Year’s baby’s arrival was especially powerful, signifying the year that her mom got sober. 

    Ayla Rodriguez, the first baby born in Portage County, Ohio, arrived on Jan. 1 at 12:56AM to Nicole Mansell, according to The Record-Courier.

    Mansell had gone to the hospital because she thought she had the flu, and was surprised when her daughter arrived four weeks early. She said that her daughter’s birth was the final step in what had been “a life-changing year.”

    The mother found out that she was pregnant earlier in 2018, when she was in jail. She said that learning she was expecting prompted her to take her sobriety seriously, although she already had plans to stop using drugs. 

    “The way I looked at it, she was inside me, and I wasn’t going to destroy her,” Mansell told The Record Courier. “Finding out that I was pregnant with her helped me stay on the right track.”

    It was a meaningful challenge in a state that has been hard-hit by the opioid epidemic, although Mansell didn’t elaborate on the specifics of her history of substance abuse. She completed one rehab program after learning about her pregnancy and is now in an after-care program.

    Although she had the option to participate in the county’s drug-court program, she chose not to, saying that the program’s requirements were too much to handle during her pregnancy. Instead, she is on probation from the charges that had her in jail early in the year. 

    Mansell had been getting extra care during her pregnancy in order to prevent pre-term labor, although she didn’t say if the complication stemmed from her drug abuse. On New Year’s Day, she was ready to start 2019 with her new daughter, in recovery, hoping that the newborn’s quiet streak would continue.  

    “Seriously, she doesn’t cry,” she told the Courier.

    Ayla was born weighing 5 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 18 and three quarters inches long. She was too small to fit in special New Year’s garb that a nurse at the hospital had prepared for the first baby of the year. 

    Mansell has another daughter, Ariana, who is 11. She says that Ariana was a small baby and was born early, just like Ayla. Ayla’s father, Joe Rodriguez, has three other children: brothers Cayden, Kilynn and Carson Rodriguez, ages 6, 5 and 2.

    “I’ve made it known that my children are going to know this child,” Rodriguez said. “She’s their sister.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Woman Uses Creative Writing To Help Ex-Offenders In Recovery

    Woman Uses Creative Writing To Help Ex-Offenders In Recovery

    “I learned how to live again, how to feel comfortable in my own skin. She’s a Godsend,” says one of Rebecca Conviser’s students.

    It was a cancer diagnosis that first got Rebecca Conviser interested in the power of words. If the Morristown, New Jersey woman didn’t make it through, she wanted to leave behind words for her husband and children. 

    But Conviser did make it through, and now she is using the power of words for something else—helping those in recovery from substance use disorder. 

    According to NJ.com, for the past six years, 79-year-old Conviser as has been volunteering her time by teaching the “Creative Positive Expression Program” to ex-offenders. Rather than jail time, these individuals have been recommended to the drug court programs in Morris and Sussex counties in New Jersey. 

    Thomas Brodhecker, 27, of Sussex County, has been in the program for two years. Since he first entered the program, his opinion of the role of writing in recovery has changed drastically. He says that through writing he has been able to peel back emotional aspects of his life that played into his use of drugs. 

    “I learned how to live again, how to feel comfortable in my own skin,” Brodhecker said. “She’s a Godsend.”

    Conviser fell into her role teaching the writing course after overhearing a conversation at a local coffee shop about the obstacles ex-offenders face when trying to find employment.

    She engaged with the group, which led to her meeting Charles Johnson Jr., the drug court director of Morris County. Johnson thought the writing program would be beneficial for ex-offenders when it came to writing resumes and cover letters. 

    However, the program goes beyond writing employment materials. For Anthony Justo, 27, of Morristown, Conviser’s passion for the program led him to be more accepting of his past. 

    “She presented these assignments with a fiery passion,” Justo told NJ.com. “She was lit up about helping people become better writers and better people.”

    In addition to the writing course, Conviser has helped ex-offenders with public speaking and telling their stories. She has headed up a jail cell presentation, in which school students stand in a 4×6 area designed to resemble a jail cell for 90 seconds to get a taste of what confinement is like for inmates. 

    Conviser says that when it comes to helping people change their lives, persistence is key. “I’m not one of these people who say, ‘oh well, it didn’t work.’ My feeling is well, it didn’t work, we have to move on,” she said.

    Despite her own personal challenges, including two cancer diagnoses and a recent Parkinson’s diagnosis, Conviser says she plans to continue to volunteer, though she has had to slow down a bit. 

    “I’m a person who gives back,” Conviser said. “As long as I can help people, I’m going to continue to do this.”

    View the original article at thefix.com