CONTACT: Leslie Eikleberry, 785-827-5541 ext. 1127

March 23, 2005

“Methamphetamine: Child Welfare and Addiction Treatment Best Practices” will be the focus of the next Addiction and Recovery Workshop at Kansas Wesleyan University.

The workshop, presented by Eric Martin and Jay Wurscher, is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. April 1 in 201 Peters Science Hall on the Kansas Wesleyan campus. It is sponsored by the KWU Addictions Counseling Program and Department of behavioral Sciences and Human Services and the Salina Regional Health Center.

This multi-faceted workshop will not only cover all people want to know about meth – its production, effects on the body, mind, and behavior – and best practices for working with the meth addict, but it also will include important information on what people need to know about meth-related effects on future family, community, and parental rights. The workshop was developed for substance abuse and mental health professionals, child welfare workers, criminal justice and corrections personnel, nurses and other health care professionals, and educators.

The production and addiction problems surrounding methamphetamine have rapidly developed into crisis proportions in America and have become major problems affecting rural areas. Today’s methamphetamine is quite different from the methamphetamine produced in years past. Methamphetamine hydrochloride is roughly two to three times stronger than that produced from recipes of the 1970s-80s and is basically “bath-tub crack,” according to Wesley Clark, executive director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

Methamphetamine is more addictive, takes a greater toll on the human body, produces more psychosis, and produces more problematic clients for addiction treatment providers than ever before. Moreover, the chemicals used in the production process present significant risks and hazards to communities, to the environment, and to the welfare of children. Approximately 20 percent of meth labs have children present.

To complicate matters, Congress has enacted a new law, Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), with the aim of decreasing the number of children in state foster care. When ASFA was enacted there were 7,000,000 children languishing in foster care at the expense of state and federal government. Now, requirements on addicts for long-term sobriety and treatment for retaining parental rights and stricter legislative rules have significantly increased pressure on clinicians and treatment providers to improve outcomes.

Eric Martin is Executive Director of the Addiction Counselor Certification Board of Oregon and is an Instructor with the University of Oregon and the Oregon Child Welfare Division. Martin is a recovering person with 20 years experience in addictions treatment and is known for his insight and humor into the brain-behavior connection of alcoholism and drug abuse. A recent presenter at the national conference of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, Martin has received numerous awards, including the 2002 Governor’s Award of Excellence. Martin also sits on Oregon Governor Kulongoski’s Advisory Board on Drugs and Violent Crime.

Jay Wurscher is Director of Oregon’s Child Welfare Addiction Services. Wurscher is the state supervisor of alcohol and drug specialists and recovery mentors for every child welfare office in the State of Oregon. These special alcohol and drug positions were created and added as an adjunct to every child welfare branch in Oregon for the purpose of assisting into recovery parents who have had children removed by the state. Wurscher also sits on the governor’s Methamphetamine Task Force and is an Instructor with the University of Oregon.

For more information about the Addiction and Recovery Workshop, contact Gerald Gillespie, Associate Professor of Psychology at KWU at 785-827-5541 ext. 2320.