GREENFIELD — Dealing with a family member caught up in the depths of substance abuse or an addiction can be a difficult ordeal, especially when young children are involved.
Those are the cases in which Judge Beth Crawford, the first justice in the Franklin Probate and Family Court, has seen a drastic uptick in recent years: grandparents coming before the court to take custody of their grandchildren; non-custodial parents pleading to be allowed to remove their children from a living arrangement they feel is dangerous.
“We see it every day,” Crawford said. “It’s a tough situation.”
That’s why the court has teamed with members of the regional Opioid Task Force, which has been working locally for the past few years to address the opioid and heroin abuse epidemic that has gripped the nation, to establish the state’s first Family Drug Court, which officially opens Friday with a celebration at Greenfield Community College.
The program starts at 9:30 a.m., with a speech by state Attorney General Maura Healey beginning at 10 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Crawford, who will oversee the program, said drug courts — special courts that focus on a criminal offender’s drug problems and helping them recover rather than prosecuting them — have existed in the state’s criminal and juvenile courts for years, but the Family Drug Court takes that model and expands on it to provide support to family members and children of the participant.
The program is voluntary, but if all parties involved in a case accept the terms, the underlying case is put on hold while the parent pursues treatment.
The process begins with a clinical assessment of the recovering parent to determine their treatment needs. That could involve anything from enrollment in a detox or in-patient program or an intensive out-patient program, Crawford said.
The parent will also be required to undergo random drug screenings and attend five community self-help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, per week.
They will also have to appear before the court regularly to report on their process. In the early days of the program, that will happen biweekly.
While that’s going on, the court will also provide the parent’s children and their temporary guardians or caregivers with support services, including counseling to help transitioning to a new school, which they may have to do when they move in with the caregiver, among other types of aid.
The goal is to reduce the possibility for, or impact of, trauma in the children’s lives.
“It’s a chance to resolve the underlying problem that came before the court,” Crawford said of the program. “We’re really concerned about the trauma on children from exposure to substance abuse, or losing contact with their parents, changing homes or schools.”
A third piece of the program is educational, Crawford said. Participating parents will receive information from medical professionals about how addiction affects their physiology, while caregivers will receive instruction on how to talk to children about addiction.
“That’s to reduce the stigma around addiction,” Crawford said. “They’ll all learn about the scientific basis of addiction.”
Crawford said the court is a realization of the need to deal with the entire family when one member is affected directly by addiction, because there are ripple effects that can cause lasting damage in their lives.
“Use by one member affects them all,” she said. “We want to provide this support.”