Help sought for pregnant moms on drugs

No judgment.

That is the message a large group of Lake County health professionals want to drive home to drug-consuming pregnant mothers.

Come as you are. Just come let us help you give birth to the healthiest baby possible.

Armed with a $100,000 grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation awarded about two weeks ago, the group known as the Hope Project Workgroup is in the early stages of implementing a comprehensive program that will reach out to pregnant women struggling with substance abuse in Lake County and offer them assistance during their pregnancies.

During the first six months of 2015, just under 30 percent of Lake County’s deliveries were shown to be to mothers who were abusing drugs sometime during their pregnancies, said St. Luke Community Healthcare Foundation Executive Director Caroline McDonald. Group members expect the second half of 2015 to produce similar results.

Of those who were considered “at risk” and tested positive for drugs, only six of the 41 drug-consuming mothers tested positive for methamphetamines. Others tested positive for heroin, cocaine, marijuana, legal and illegal prescription drugs, she said. Still others tested positive for a combination of more than one substance simultaneously.

Statistics were gathered by a mutually-concerned group made up of representatives or supporters from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes social services and health departments, CSKT’s Tribal Council and Education Department, Lake County Public Health Department, St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Luke Community Healthcare and Western Montana Addiction Services.

“We want to break the chain,” McDonald said. “We want those babies to have the healthiest outcome possible.”

And ways to help expecting mothers might look non-traditional. But expecting mothers need immediate help on a variety of levels.

One mother might need a ride in order to keep her medical appointments. Another might need something completely different.

“We want to be a viable option for care that offers an improved way of life,” McDonald said.

All that effort is designed to give mothers a chance to choose a better life for themselves and their child.

In the end, group professionals want to see healthier women and healthier babies on fewer or no drugs.

“The Hope Workgroup recognized that long-term changes for behavior require supports beyond the four walls of the hospital and beyond delivery,” a Hope Project conceptual definition said. “Intentionally holistic, the Hope Workgroup proposes to implement a pilot program for willing women who have received a positive drug screen that will provide a team of supports including parenting education, addiction counseling, prenatal healthcare, postpartum healthcare, and social services working in collaboration.”

The two-pronged outreach will offer a medical team and a home-visiting team, the project report said.

Organizers hope that each interaction with a pregnant mother will consist of about 18 months of care.

“The ideal length of program participation would be approximately 18 months: Six months prenatal care followed by one year of aftercare coordinating the needs of mother, baby, and the immediate family that make up her home environment,” the document said.

Group leaders said that the first year of a child’s life presents tremendous physical and mental challenges for every mother regardless of their addiction status in the best of circumstances. The additional stressors presented by addiction recovery, potential neo-natal health problems, and other social pressures make long-lasting change even more difficult.

Now that the Hope Project received the $100,000 grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation they can begin the fulfilling work their ultimate mission.

The Montana Healthcare Foundation gave away $1 million dollars in grants to groups that fell into one or more of three categories that the Foundation said are key health challenges facing Montana.

The areas focus on mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction and those who suffer from behavioral health problems; recruiting health professionals and help fixing funding challenges.

“Health experts and community members consistently rank behavioral health problems among the issues in greatest need of attention in Montana,” Aaron Wernham, MD, the foundation’s CEO said. “A recent survey of behavioral health problems and services ranked Montana 44th among 50 states, and 49th for youth.”

McDonald said the group concerned about the medical community’s interaction with drug-consuming expectant mothers was born from an active and diverse group already in operation called Best Beginnings Children’s Partnership, which is a volunteer group that serves Tribal and non-Tribal interests and is made up of early childhood professionals and community members who began meeting in 2012 to address complex early childhood issues facing Lake County and the Flathead Reservation,

The Hope Workgroup was formed specifically to consider what the community could do to help improve health outcomes for all involved. Just more than a year old, the Hope Workgroup continues to be dedicated to the comprehensive grassroots strategy to get at-risk patients help, myth bust potentially-harmful notions about drugs and pregnancy and find the cracks in services where more support is needed.

The Best Beginnings Children’s Partnership serves the Flathead Reservation and Lake County and has been working since 2012 to address many complex issues facing our youngest community members.

The vast majority of the work in the last year has been done by the Hope Workgroup organizations volunteering their time with additional support from a grant from the Providence Healthcare Foundation to provide leadership support while developing the strategy, McDonald said.

The cost of implementing this strategy will be supported through the recently-awarded, $100,000 two-year grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation and matched with a combination of cash and in-kind donations from St. Luke Community Healthcare; Providence/St. Joseph; Lake County Public Health, and CSKT’s Health, Education, and Social Services Departments.