{"id":13793,"date":"2022-11-28T11:41:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T16:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=13793"},"modified":"2022-11-28T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T16:41:03","slug":"families-opioids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/families-opioids\/","title":{"rendered":"Working to Reunite Families Fractured by Opioids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How Cornell researchers and Cooperative Extension staff\u2014plus an alum who\u2019s a Tompkins County judge\u2014are making a difference<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story has been condensed from a feature<\/a> in the<\/em> Cornell Chronicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Susan Kelley<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When her opioid addiction was at its worst, Stacey Dimas was terrified her sons, 3 and 10, would find her dead from an overdose in the family bathroom. She wrote them each a letter with life advice in case they had to carry on without her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an extra layer, when you\u2019re using, of incomprehensible demoralization\u2014those are the only words I have to describe it,\u201d Dimas says. \u201cI hated what I saw in the mirror. I didn\u2019t think I was a good parent. In fact, I knew I wasn\u2019t a good parent. And obviously the courts agreed with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimas lost custody of her kids in 2015, after her mother and mother-in-law reported her to Child Protective Services for neglect. The boys went to live with her in-laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimas was referred to Tompkins County Family Treatment Court<\/a>\u2014whose founding judge is Arts & Sciences alumnus John Rowley \u201982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Judge
Judge Rowley in court in Ithaca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dimas and her children are among the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose lives have been ravaged by opioid abuse. The epidemic spurred Cornell researchers and parent educators to analyze the opioid crisis\u2019s impact on families and assess the efficacy of solutions to treat parents who misuse opioids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In traditional child welfare courts, parents take longer to start substance abuse treatment, return to drug abuse more quickly, and are less likely to reunite with their children. Tompkins County Family Court, which incorporates Cornell programming, follows a therapeutic approach to family reunification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tompkins County collaboration inspired an ambitious five-year research program, the Opioids and Family Life Project, launched by Cornell researchers in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team is evaluating how the court\u2019s use of a parenting class called Strengthening Families, run by Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Tompkins County, helps strengthen and reunify families fractured by opioids by teaching them skills from solving problems to coping with anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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