美国国家公共电台 NPR New Hampshire Mothers Struggling With Opioid Addiction Fight To Keep Their Children

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A record number of women who are struggling with opioid addiction¹ are being forced to give up their newborn children. As Rachel Gotbaum reports, the state has few services to offer these mothers before they risk losing their children permanently².

RACHEL GOTBAUM, BYLINE³: For several years, Jillian Broomstein was addicted⁴ to Percocet and heroin⁵. But once she learned she was pregnant at age 26, she knew she wanted to get off drugs.

JILLIAN BROOMSTEIN: I started off by going to detox when I found out I was pregnant because I wanted a clean slate⁶.

GOTBAUM: In New Hampshire, the waitlist for a detox bed is long, so Broomstein drove down to Massachusetts. It was there she was put on methadone and told it was the best way to treat her disease and to keep her baby safe. After detox, she returned home to rural New Hampshire. But getting to the closest methadone clinic each day was a challenge, and sometimes she bought opiates off the street. She knew withdrawing from drugs could endanger her pregnancy⁷.

BROOMSTEIN: I was more worried about the unborn baby. You know, I'm unable to get transportation, so now I'm detoxing pregnant, which is dangerous.

GOTBAUM: Broomstein's son Jeremy was born healthy, except that he tested positive for methadone. In New Hampshire, hospitals are required by law to inform the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, also known as DCYF. And Broomstein would need to find a safe place to live, or she could lose her son.

BROOMSTEIN: I was told that you have to have 24-hour supervision⁸ from a family member that would be able to vouch⁹ for you, so, like, a grandmother, a stay-at-home mom - anybody like that. But in order to keep my child, I had to have 24-hour supervision.

GOTBAUM: Broomstein grew up in foster care and had no family of her own. She tried to get a bed in one of the few residential¹⁰ drug treatment programs for new mothers, but they were all full. So she and her newborn moved in with a friend and her kids. They were there for just two weeks when two women and a police officer came to the door. They were from DCYF.

BROOMSTEIN: They said that if I couldn't find a family member that they would have to take him and place him in foster care.

GOTBAUM: Even though Jillian Broomstein had not used heroin for months and was in counseling and parenting classes, Jeremy was taken from her that day.

BROOMSTEIN: I was doing all the work that they wanted me to do, but I had to - until I got into a place, they weren't going to give him back to me. It was hard. Like, it just feels like you rip your chest out.

GOTBAUM: The number of children placed in foster care in New Hampshire has more than doubled in recent years. Much of that is a result of the opioid epidemic¹¹, which has overwhelmed the state's limited resources. Joseph Ribsam runs DCYF.

JOSEPH RIBSAM: What you'd see in a lot of other jurisdictions¹² is you have a caseload of something around 12 families. Right now in New Hampshire, people have an average caseload of somewhere in the 40s. That's a huge difference.

GOTBAUM: But that's not the only difference, says Ribsam. Because of major budget cuts to child welfare, caseworkers in New Hampshire can only offer help to struggling families once they have opened a case of abuse and neglect. There's little money to support parents before that happens.

RIBSAM: The result of that is exactly what you see in the data - that more children coming into the foster care system that otherwise might not if we had the capacity to serve families more holistically¹³ up front.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY WHINING)

GOTBAUM: In the kitchen of an old house in Rochester, N.H., moms are gathered with their babies.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Mama, Mama.

GOTBAUM: This is Hope On Haven¹⁴ Hill, where eight pregnant women and new moms can live with their children while they receive treatment for their drug addiction. Some of the women who live here are battling to get their kids back from the state. They have 12 months to do what the court asks of them, which includes staying sober in treatment and finding safe and secure housing, or they can lose their parental¹⁵ rights.

COURTNEY TANNER: I cannot stress enough that 12 months is a really short window for somebody who's in early recovery.

GOTBAUM: Courtney Tanner runs this program.

TANNER: If a mother can't find resources, or if a mother experiences a relapse during that 12-month window, the child can be removed from her and put up for adoption¹⁶. Her rights could be terminated.

GOTBAUM: Jillian Broomstein almost lost her son Jeremy to state custody¹⁷, but she was determined¹⁸ to get him back. After he was placed into foster care, she continued her methadone treatment and finally got a bed in another residential treatment program for young moms. She was reunited with him after a few months, but she knows a lot of women who gave up hope and went back to using drugs.

BROOMSTEIN: They said in court that it was an odd case that they gave me my child back so quickly. It made me want to cry. Not a lot of people make it and get their children back in that year.

GOTBAUM: Broomstein is now living in Nashua, far from the rural town where she first started using heroin, and where there are many more services to help her rebuild her life. While Jeremy is in daycare, she is studying business administration and hopes one day to open her own bakery in the neighborhood. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Gotbaum.

SIMON: And our story was produced in collaboration¹⁹ with our partners at Kaiser Health News.

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1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

5 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

6 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

7 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

8 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

9 vouch   

v.担保；断定；n.被担保者

参考例句：

• They asked whether I was prepared to vouch for him.他们问我是否愿意为他作担保。
• I can vouch for the fact that he is a good worker.我保证他是好员工。

10 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

11 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

12 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

13 holistically   

adv.holistic（整体的，全盘的）的副词形式

参考例句：

• Menu items and dialogs, when they are translated, to be considered holistically. 在翻译菜单项和对话框时，需要全盘考虑，确保翻译的界面保持整体的一致性很重要。 来自互联网
• If we examine this entity holistically, we can discover how incredible it really is. 如果我们整体检查这实体，我们可以发现它真的是多么让人难以置信。 来自互联网

14 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

15 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

16 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

17 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

18 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

19 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。