Faith-based programs playing stronger role in helping meth abusers
NASHVILLE — Tonya Mahan’s future seemed hopeless.
Her nine-year addiction to methamphetamine had sent her to jail, isolated her from family and driven her to the brink of suicide several times.
“I didn’t have anywhere to go,” said Mahan. “I had used up all my resources. My parents wouldn’t have anything to do with me, and I had no friends.”
When she was ordered to get treatment while on probation, Mahan found Serenity House, a faith-based recovery program for women. It may have saved her life.
In Tennessee’s ongoing war against methamphetamine, Serenity House is among a number of alternative programs state and health care officials are using to help addicts.
Mahan, 35 and the mother of three, is now on her own in Cookeville, and has been off meth for almost two years. Her ex-husband has custody of her children, but Mahan said she talks to them daily and sees them one day a week and on the weekends.
“That’s probably the best thing that’s happened to me, being able to see my kids,” she said.
Serenity House keeps its location a secret in order to protect its residents, many of whom have “baggage,” said program director Niki Payne.
But regardless of what they’ve endured, Payne said all the women seem to benefit from the faith-based element of the recovery program.
“It gives them hope, somebody stronger than them they can hold on to,” said Payne, herself a recovered meth and cocaine abuser. “I didn’t get clean until I got God. I recommend other programs incorporate that element.”
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant cooked from a recipe that includes toxic household and workplace products and cold tablets that contain ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. The clandestine labs, sometimes set up in kitchens, are potentially explosive and produce toxic vapors.
People who use the stimulant tend to hallucinate and become aggressive, in some cases violent. Others, like Mahan, become so emotionally distraught that they contemplate taking their own life.
Tennessee has become a center of meth abuse. The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration has reported 1,253 meth labs cleaned up in Tennessee in 2003, the most in any state for the third straight year. It estimates the state is home to three-quarters of the meth labs in the Southeast.
Earlier this year, a report by the Department of Children’s Services showed the state will take about 750 children from parents involved with the drug this year. That’s about 150 more meth-related child removals this year than in 2003.
A task force appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen has recommended limiting the availability of products used to make the drug, tougher penalties and expanded treatment for addicts — including faith-based and community-based treatment options.
“The reality is, very few addicts are able to break the grip of this deadly drug,” said Bredesen, who is expected to push the measures in the General Assembly next year.
“We need to be using every tool we can find to address the epidemic. If an effective faith-based initiative can help, then we ought to consider it.”
In August, Bredesen announced the state will receive a $17.8 million federal “Access to Recovery” grant to aid in the fight against meth and other drugs. Over the next three years, the state Department of Health will receive about $5.9 million annually to expand access to treatment for adults with substance problems.
State Health Commissioner Kenneth Robinson said part of the money will go toward faith-based programs because of the “holistic approach” they use in treating addiction.
“We think the depths of caring, long-term spiritual support, comprehensive support to client and family will be particularly relative as we look for ways to treat meth addiction,” said Robinson, who holds both medical and divinity degrees.
Dr. Sullivan Smith, emergency medical director at the Cookeville Regional Medical Center, said many recovery initiatives that address substance abuse such as alcohol or cocaine incorporate faith in their process and shouldn’t be ruled out for dealing with meth.
“One of the 12 steps, a very fundamental piece, is that you recognize there’s a power higher than you, and you have to rely on that strength,” Smith said.
Mahan agrees.
“For meth, it takes more, because it gets so ingrained in your life,” she said. “I definitely recommend faith-based programs to others.”