Some people start out their careers knowing exactly where they will end up and how they will get there. For others, it takes longer to figure out their calling.
Heidee McMillin — a doctoral candidate and research associate at WSU Spokane — began her undergraduate studies thinking she would become an accountant. Today, she is about to complete her doctoral studies in criminal justice and looks forward to a research career that she hopes will contribute to solving some of society’s major justice problems. Through her doctoral research, she is already contributing to solving a key Spokane area issue, parental drug use.
McMillin is examining the effectiveness of the Spokane County Meth Family Treatment Court, a voluntary program for parents who have had their children removed from their homes because of their drug use. The year-long, federally funded program includes group counseling, mandatory AA meetings, and close monitoring of participants through weekly drug testing and pop-in visits from Child Protective Services workers. It also assists participants in creating a stable environment for their kids by encouraging them to secure employment and find housing.
McMillin hopes to prove that the Spokane County Meth Family Treatment Court is more successful at getting parents sobered up and reunited with their children than traditional treatment programs, which usually last only three months. So far, the results look promising.
She has looked at three years worth of data covering 130 people who inquired about the program, including a control group of 42 individuals who chose not to participate. Of those who participated, 50 percent ended up graduating from the program and 86 percent were reunified with their children, whereas only 18 percent of the control group regained custody of their kids.
And while the program graduates were in treatment for an average of 55 weeks, those in the control group only received an average of 10 weeks of treatment.
“There is a direct correlation between duration of treatment and success rates as far as sobriety,” McMillin said.
She thinks that one of the contributing factors might be that the longer duration of the Meth Family Treatment Court program enables participants to form peer support groups.
McMillin also stresses that the Spokane County Meth Family Treatment Court is one of few options available to fathers. “In Washington State, if you’re pregnant you move right to the top of the list, but if you’re a guy, you have to wait two or three months to get into treatment. Through the Meth Family Treatment Court, they can get right in,” she said.
McMillin firmly believes that the best way to help a child is to help their parents be better parents. “That’s why family treatment courts are a great option for parents—both moms and dads—who struggle with drug use, because they are supported for at least a year while they do the hard work of recovery.”
A view-changing experience
McMillin’s dissertation research follows directly out of her interest in maternal drug use and therapeutic jurisprudence (the use of the criminal justice system for therapeutic—rather than punitive—purposes), topics she explored while working towards her master’s degree at WSU Spokane. Learning about the issue of maternal drug use for a paper she was writing made such an impression on her that it changed her world view.
“I was going to write a paper about what I perceived to be these ‘stupid’ women who do drugs while they’re pregnant or parenting,” she said. “Shortly after beginning the research I concluded that if I had to endure the unspeakable abuse and tumultuous lives experienced by these women, I would have likely turned to drugs to cope, too.”
To her dismay, McMillin found that women who opened up more about their circumstances and their drug abuse were likely to receive more punitive treatment, rather than get more help.
Her interest in the plight of these women led her to reluctantly accept an assignment to teach, something she didn’t think she would enjoy. She now teaches a class on “Violence toward Women” to criminal justice and nursing students on the Spokane campus, and thoroughly enjoys it.
“There are all these great resources in Spokane. I can pull people from the community into my class, like victim advocates, police officers, and representatives of battery intervention programs,” she said. “I love teaching, and I love teaching in Spokane.”
