Support, peer to peer Glacier Center approaches drug testing in a different way

The Glacier Center for Families looks more like the typical American living room than a drug-testing facility.

The couches are deep and comfy. An ancient TV in a wooden cabinet squats in the corner. There is no receptionist.

In short, the aseptic atmosphere of a clinic is replaced with the familiarity of the home.

And that synthesis of apparent opposites allows the Kalispell nonprofit to provide substance-abuse accountability in a safe, dignified environment.

"We just really saw a need for what we're doing now, a peer-to-peer support agency," said Christina Ryan, one of the center's founders and primary drug tester.

What makes the Glacier Center for Families different than other drug-testing facilities is the way those who are tested interact with their testers and with one another.

"If we can get them back into society and able to function, they're a lot less likely to use drugs again," said Berni McDonald, the center's other founder and lead counselor. "We give them the blueprint, they do all the work. We should never have to work harder than somebody trying to go through recovery."

Clients are treated with dignity and compassion. It's drug testing with a personal relationship.

"When they brought me in here, I knew it was going to be a bad day," Renee Stern said. "But they treated me with the utmost kindness, which wasn't what I was expecting. When you're a recovering meth addict people kind of look down on you."

Stern was brought in for testing 10 months ago by the Child and Family Services Division of the Department of Public Health and Human Services. She tested positive for methamphetamine and her children were taken from her right there in the center's hallway.

Since that day, Stern said she has stayed clean with the center's help. She was given partial custody of her 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in August and full custody in December.

"What I expected was nothing like what I went through," said Stern. "There were several times when I came in here just frustrated with the world and they helped me through it."

DRUG TESTING at the Glacier Center for Families is random and often. Testees call in every day and listen to a pre-recorded message. If the name of their testing group comes up, they have to be at the center within an hour.

The center's pool of testees often are divided into groups based on the frequency of their tests, common experiences, similarity of addictions and various steps of recovery.

Currently, most peer-to-peer counseling occurs in an informal setting while a certain group awaits its turn to be tested.

"We're a guidance and a road map for where they need to be," said Ryan, describing her role in the peer-to-peer counseling sessions. The center does not enforce or impose sanctions for noncompliance, she added.

But Ryan and McDonald soon hope to turn them into more formalized programs. The center is pursuing grants and other money to make that hope a reality, McDonald said.

Peer-to-peer counseling is effective because clients are treated as people, not just drug addicts and alcoholics, said Brandi Bonner, who has been going to the Glacier Center for Families on and off for three years.

"The way they go about things make you want to be a better person," said Bonner, also a recovering meth addict. "They're in the business of saving lives and reuniting families. I really believe that."

The center also holds a parenting class, realizing that for recovering addicts responsible parenting is often an unlearned skill. The classes, however, also are well-attended by nonaddicts looking to reunify a broken family after a long separation or people just looking for a new way to relate with their children.

"They didn't just tell me how to be a parent," Bonner said. "They're there as a friend and a support group. I have a good life now. I'm a good mom."

Ryan and McDonald teach classes on attachment and loss, child development, organization, discipline, anger management, media literacy, effects of drugs and alcohol on children and working with the different social-service agencies.

"We need them to have the tools and some of the problem solving abilities to take care of these things by themselves," said McDonald, adding that a lot of what the center does is teach clients how to use outside resources available to them.

Open since September 2006, the center serves clients from Essex to Libby and from Whitefish to Lakeside.

Clients are referred for drug-testing work from a variety of social-service agencies throughout the valley, the court system, private businesses and even parents off the street.

Ryan and McDonald like to say the Flathead Valley often is simply poverty with a view. But with their brand of accountability and support, people are offered a hand up.

"Really what matters is that we answer the phone," said Ryan. "That's what we're there for."

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com