GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Deanna Reaves has been sober for about a year and a half. She credits Ballad Health’s Strong Futures program for helping her reach that milestone.
“I’ve been in Greeneville my whole life,” Reaves said. “[The drug use] started when I was 16 and just progressed up, and then I had enough.”
Meth was her drug of choice, and fentanyl ultimately made its way into the picture.
“I did it on and off for a year,” she said. “I was sober when I was pregnant with my girls. I had twin girls. I lost one at two and a half weeks and then that’s when I started using meth again. And just fentanyl and all. It destroyed my entire life. I lost my family, everything. I was just not a good person. Period.”
Eventually, Reaves hit her breaking point.
“I left my little girl with my mammaw, and the drug use was just bad. I was staying out all night and leaving my little girl there and fighting with my mom,” she said. “So, I had called my dad and it was like 3 o’clock in the morning, and I was crying, told him that I had had enough and he told me he couldn’t help me.”
That’s when she found the Strong Futures program .
“I went to rehab as soon as I came here, and I have been clean ever since,” Reaves said. “Two weeks after I got home, the house caught fire and I lost my daddy in the fire. I was still doing classes here. I just wasn’t here. I was trying my classes and trying to do as good as I could, but I didn’t make it. I left for about two months and started drinking every day again, even moved to Gatlinburg, was away from here.”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Ballad Strong Futures program works to unite families “When her father died in that fire and she was with us at that time and decided to leave, I didn’t know if we would see her again,” said Strong Futures Operations Manager Lea Anne Spradlen. “When people walk out of our doors, we’re calling them. We’re staying in touch with them. We’re checking on them and so with that communication that we had as a treatment team with the housing supervisor, I talked with her as the judicial liason, other people within the office, she felt welcomed to come back.”
Strong Futures is an outpatient treatment clinic for parents. Spradlen told News Channel 11 that patients often come to the program at their lowest.
“When they walk through our doors, they’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their home. They have no car. They can’t afford a car. They’ve lost their kids. They’ve lost the respect of their family,” Spradlen said. “They’ve lost everything, and some of them, they have nowhere to go.”
The team of case managers, therapists and community navigators work together to create personalized plans with family therapy and programs.
“A lot of the clients that we get have no outside support. We become their support system,” said Spradlen. “We’ve even had children of our clients that when they were asked at school to draw a picture of their family, they drew a picture of a Strong Futures employee with their mom.”
“Strong futures gave me a second chance,” said Reaves. “It’s what still holds me clean. It holds me together still. I still have my sponsor also. And I can call [my sponsors] any time I want to, and they always answer. They’re here. They’re not ever going anywhere.”
Reaves said her team guided her to where she needed to be to start gaining custody back of her daughter.
“It was very, very hard. Like having to leave her in Knoxville. The trips back were brutal, like she would be crying for me,” said Reaves. “And just, I really put her through that? It was horrible.”
Now, she’s in the middle of a 90-day home pass with a goal of having full custody by the end of November.
“Waking up to her every day it just… it’s been great,” said Reaves. “She’s so happy. She doesn’t cry anymore.”
Strong Futures does have a living facility for mothers with children 12 and under.
“It’s an independent living facility. So, these mothers are cooking their own meals. They have jobs,” said Spradlen. “They’re not tied down to that house all day because they’re doing their clinical piece here in our clinic but that’s their home so we don’t provide services in the home. That’s where they live.”
The clinic is located at 438 E. Vann Road in Greeneville. For more information, including applications and referrals, call 423-278-1696.
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