Women battle substance abuse
Kaiser physician volunteers to lead Project Aurora group
By Shauntel Lowe
Vallejo Times Herald, 4/24/2009

With their hands clasped together, and their lives intertwined through substance abuse, a group of women raised their voices in unison Thursday.

"No matter what happens today, I won't relapse," the women chanted.

The chant marked the close of a daily support session for women with substance abuse issues, led by Dr. Kellie Kute, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center.

The support group -- Project Aurora at Youth and Family Services on Tennessee Street -- leads women to recovery from addictions to alcohol and other substances.

Kute attends for an hour and a half once a month as part of a volunteer program through Kaiser Permanente. The program connects about 35 physicians in Solano County with community clinics.

"Nobody in the group is going to let you get away with excuses," Kute told the women after many shared recent close calls with relapse.

Kute said she enjoys working with women in Project Aurora because she sees the change in their lives.

Many women are at first resistant to change, but then, "all of a sudden, they get it," Kute said.

At Thursday's session, Arqulia Fulton, 40, was nearly in tears describing how the group has changed her life. "This is my family here. ... It was meant for me to be right here," said Fulton, who has two daughters, ages 19 and 8 months.

As a pediatrician, Kute said, she is able to help the women learn how to be there for their children in ways they weren't when they were abusing alcohol and drugs.

"A lot of people who didn't have great parents don't have great parenting skills," Kute said.

For Arlene Garrison, it was seeing her son nearly die in a car fire that prompted her to stop using methamphetamine more than two years ago.

Garrison said she prayed that if her son made it through the fire, she would stop using drugs.

Her son is now 3 and it's been "two years, five months and eight days," Garrison said.

"If I can save someone from being where I was, I will," she said.

For some, the road to recovery is a bit like a roundabout.

Vanessa Roush, 24, said she was nearly six months clean from methamphetamine and alcohol last year before she relapsed.

"It's a struggle," said Roush, a mother of twin 21/2-year-old girls, a 6-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. Roush said she likes "to be up," and it's a challenge getting used to life without drugs.

But she's three months clean now, and coming to the support session with Kute has been helpful, she said. Kute also treated one of the twins for pneumonia at Kaiser.

Echoing the group's mantra of a life free from relapse, Roush said she is confident she will make it to the six-month mark this time.

"There's more to life than using drugs," Roush said.