JULIAN — With her 1-year-old daughter Aaliyah on her hip, Sarah Muller stood in the sun on Wednesday, a blue folder in hand, thinking about what it was going to be like watching the baby grow up.
Last year, there was a chance Muller wouldn’t have had the opportunity. She had struggled with substance use disorder for years. Different interventions and therapies failed to help her. Then, when Aaliyah was just a month old, Muller enrolled in the Boone County family treatment court with her partner and Aaliyah’s father, TJ Stone.
That blue folder held her certificate of completion for the program — something she said she never thought she’d receive.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. I didn’t think I had the willpower,” Muller said. “Sitting here today, being celebrated, looking at [Aaliyah] in my arms, it makes you feel like all your hard work paid off.”
Muller and Stone were two of 21 people to graduate from a treatment court program in Boone and Lincoln counties on Wednesday. They are some of the only people in the state so far to graduate from family treatment court, a pilot program started in 2019 to help support families affected by substance use disorder.
Operating in only three counties — Boone, Ohio and Randolph — the family treatment courts have been a success, said Boone County Circuit Judge Will Thompson.
House Bill 2918, introduced by lawmakers this session, would expand family treatment courts into a statewide, permanent program. Although it has yet to be brought onto the House Judiciary agenda, Thompson said he’s hopeful.
The program is keeping families together, or reuniting them sooner, he said. People who might not have gotten help before now have another option that prioritizes their families. It was always his intention to make this a program for every West Virginian.
“If you talk to any circuit judge in West Virginia, they’ll tell you the part of their docket they least enjoy is abuse and neglect,” Thompson said. “They’re draining cases. There are constant failures, and success often is limited and so rare. [Family treatment court] is a different way to tackle those cases, and I think it’s giving people hope — hope that success and recovery is possible. That they can do it, and families don’t have to be broken.”
Muller knows this better than most.
Aaliyah is her second daughter. She lost custody of her first child a couple of years ago, something that still breaks her heart today. If family treatment courts existed then, Muller said, she thinks she could have kept custody — or at least contact — with her child.
“It’s hard, every day, to think of your baby out there without you,” Muller said. “This program, I hope, means there are less mothers and fathers going through what I had to. There are people here that are going to take a chance on you, and that’s scary, but it saved my life.”
When Muller initially tried to get into family treatment court with Stone, she was almost denied.
“They didn’t want me,” she said. “Judge Thompson made them, though. He stood up for me, and he never gave up on me. That means a lot to someone who has lost everything.”
Thompson has spent more than a decade rallying for family treatment courts in West Virginia. Over that time, he’s seen the number of abuse and neglect cases tied to drug use increase as the drug epidemic took hold of Southern West Virginia, and then the whole state.
“When we started drug court, adult drug court, around 2008 or so, we did it for the kids, I think. And, yes, we did want to help the parents, too. But the kids didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s hard on them,” Thompson said. “What we learned really quick, though, is that we were saving lives. The program was saving lives.”
Graduates on Wednesday were in completely different positions than they were when they entered the program, and their sobriety was just one factor. Many who entered didn’t have stable living conditions, and most were unemployed.
Now, they have their own houses and apartments. Every adult in the program who wanted it has gained employment.
And it happened because someone believed in them while they were still in active addiction, something Stone said he wishes he’d see more of.
“Nobody is going to get help until they want it, and they’ve got to want it or it ain’t going to work,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. No, it means they’re not ready yet. It takes time, and someone willing to be there when they are ready.”
John Franklin spent more than 40 years in active addiction before graduating from adult treatment court Wednesday. Now, he’s been sober for 20 months, his longest yet.
“This is a good program, and don’t think I haven’t tried programs before,” Franklin said. “I’m feeling good today. Proud. I didn’t think I’d get here, to be honest with you.”
Franklin used methamphetamine for years, and still has people he cares about in active addiction. Now on the other side, he worries about them.
“We lost a lot of connection this year,” he said. “That made things harder for some.”
For the first time since he started treatment court, a participant died from an overdose this year. It was heartbreaking, Thompson said.
But, Wednesday was about celebrations, and a lesson for everyone from the past year, Thompson said, is to celebrate victories whenever possible.
“This is a good day — every graduation day is a good day. But to have so many people make it through to recovery in the middle of a pandemic? That’s nothing short of incredible,” Thompson said. “If they can do it, anybody can do it. That should be a lesson here.”
If you or someone you love suffers from substance use disorder and is looking for help, call or text Help4WV for free to talk to a counselor, at 844-435-7498.
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