By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Judge Susan Dobrich appreciates the ironic "metamorphosis" that led to an Edwardsburg "saloon keeper's daughter" presiding over Cass County Family Treatment Court.
Treatment Court, with weekly team meetings, originated in response to too many failures in the legal system.
The adversarial style attorneys learn in law school becomes a hindrance to helping families overcome substance abuse relapses.
Three years ago Dobrich applied for and received a $450,000 federal grant which funded the only family treatment court in Michigan.
Treatment court offers "a comprehensive, systematic approach to treating substance abuse … it's really different from the adversarial process which gets in the way of treatment of families. Treatment court integrates the legal process and the treatment process. Rather than meet every three months to see how a family is doing on the goals that we've set for them, we meet on a weekly basis. It's very labor intensive, but we have a treatment team that consists of the court administrator, treatment providers from Woodlands, the Department of Human Services and attorneys. We reach a consensus on how to manage that week. We go into court and discuss treatment goals with the family and see how they're meeting them.
Treatment court alters the judge's role. Intervening to get drug addicts into treatment and to keep them out of overcrowded jails means Dobrich is less the traditional decider of who wins and loses, who's innocent and guilty and who goes to prison or goes free.
She's more of a social worker, not to mention a cheerleader.
Costs for courts to care for children is "astronomical," she acknowledged. "Foster care placement can vary from $30 a day to $150 a day. If residential treatment is necessary, up to $200 a day. In the past, with substance abuse, it's not if the family is going to have a problem, it's when. Meeting on a weekly basis, what's occurring is that whole team is a support system for that family. When there's a slip-up - and there will be with substance abuse - we can get to it right away.
She became judge in 1995 when Rotary President Herb Phillipson retired.
With treatment court, "We're seeing a reduction nationwide in children placed in foster care," she said. "We're seeing decreases in alcohol and other drug usage, decreases in domestic violence and criminal activity.
The federal government funds the foster care system "at a substantial, high-dollar amount," the judge said. "As a result, in 1997, the federal government passed a law that requires every family court in this country to monitor these cases to provide permanency for children. We have to come up with a permanent solution before we refer the children home or to go toward termination and long-term foster care within 12 months."
Dobrich continued, "If you're familiar at all with substance abuse, it takes at least 12 months to be sure that you can safely return the children home. We have these two competing clocks that we have to deal with. If we don't, Mr. Wagel's going to be very upset the funding's pushed to the local level."
Her audience included Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert Wagel, R-Wayne Township.
Confidentiality becomes an issue with treatment court. "You have to operate under the same laws as medical providers," she said. "Relapses are inevitable. Recently, we had someone who had remained sober from methamphetamine since Nov. 15. I remember it was the opening day of deer season. They were doing wonderful, but two weeks ago was arrested by the Cass County Sheriff's Department for OUIL.