The Center for Mental Health's Family Health Program, located in the Anacostia Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue S.E., has gained national attention since it was established in 1991 for serving both parents and their children.

A University of Illinois study of treatment outcomes of various programs found a 73-percent success rate at the center

Historically, treatment programs have focused on the addicted person, not the effects on the family. "This kind of treatment, a kind that addresses the total need of the family, is scarce," said Paul Harris, an addiction specialist for the University of Illinois at Chicago. "There are not enough services for the amount of people who need them, especially in urban areas and inner-city regions, and children get lost in the process."

At the Center for Mental Health, mothers complete a four-phase program, while their children play and study together. During the 16 to 18 months of the program, the mothers see their children during the day and at the end of the sessions.

In addition to treatment, the mothers receive training, take parenting classes, and get assistance with finding a job when they complete the program.

"To be able to avoid foster-care placement and provide treatment for the moms is key to the kind of changes that has to happen in child welfare in this country," said Cassie Statuto Bevan, senior policy adviser for U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who visited the center in January. "We need services that work, and this has very good promise."

Lawmakers are being urged to expand comprehensive family treatment programs. Currently, a welfare-reform authorization bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate calls for paying for six months of such treatment.