Margarita Ibarra Platt

Margarita is transforming the way drug addiction is treated in Mexico by offering low-income women the kind of holistic long-term treatment that has so far only been available through expensive private programs. Grounded in a proven 12-step process used in elite alcohol and drug treatment centers in Mexico and abroad, the comprehensive approach tackles the social and economic roots of addiction while helping women rebuild their self-esteem and prepare to reenter society.

Starting in Hermosillo, Margarita has created Mexico’s first fully integrated drug treatment and rehabilitation center for women of limited means. Adapting a methodology used at top treatment facilities in the United States and Mexico, the program takes a holistic view of addiction that addresses both the spiritual well-being of the patient and the gender-specific social and economic issues that not only push women into drugs in the first place but have also made it difficult for them to achieve sustained recoveries. The model program includes individual and group therapy that helps women build self-esteem and find their spiritual center, as well as family participation, job training, and long-term follow-up. Margarita has also opened a halfway house where women without family support can stay as they focus on rebuilding their lives. Albergue Feminil, or the Women’s Hostel, charges women only a small, income-based fee to participate, relying on private donors, government aid, and various business enterprises to support its operations. Based on the success of the Hermosillo center, Margarita has already begun negotiating with the state government for a second center, as well as lobbying the federal government to adopt her model for its own treatment programs nationwide.

Drug abuse rates have risen steadily in Mexico over the past 10 years, increasing 36 percent between 1993 and 1998 alone. Alongside the increase has come a shift in the type of drugs used, with hard drugs like cocaine and crystal meth, once relatively rare, becoming the norm. Although drug use is a problem for men and women alike, women addicts face a set of gender-specific issues that impede rehabilitation. Entrenched poverty combined with the violence that many Mexican women face both inside and outside the home not only contributes to drug abuse, but also makes recovery difficult and increases recidivism. And society’s negative views of drug-addicted women exacerbate the problem. Women’s perceived role as family caretaker makes it difficult for them to come forward and seek help, and when their addiction does come out, they tend to receive more criticism and less support than their male counterparts.

Although there are government treatment programs available to poor women, they treat the addiction in isolation without addressing the woman’s psychological or spiritual health, or the multiple environmental factors that contribute to the success or failure of treatment. These programs also lack follow-up to help women rebuild their lives socially or economically. The handful of private drug treatment programs that do take a more comprehensive approach have an admirable success rate, but charge fees that are prohibitive to all but the country’s elite.

Margarita founded the Albergue Feminil to provide poor, drug-addicted women with comprehensive treatment that would lead to real, long-term rehabilitation and reintegration. Searching for an approach based on a woman’s healthy spirit as much as on her environment, Margarita turned to Oceánica, the Mexican counterpart to the United States’ Betty Ford Center, and the rehabilitation center preferred by the nation’s elite. The method employed there, known as the Minnesota Method, is 12-step program similar to that used by the Alcoholics Anonymous organization. Margarita and a team of several professionals spent a week at Oceánica to better understand the model, and then arranged for 30 additional professional staff to receive training in it. The Minnesota Method forms the basic outline of Margarita’s program, but it is just one piece of the physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional healing process women at the Albergue go through.

Patients spend their first week in physical detoxification, either on-site, or, for heroin addicts, at a government facility contracted for that purpose. Then in the second week, therapy begins. In addition to starting on their 12-step program, patients attend daily group and individual therapy sessions with psychologists and counselors, aimed at rebuilding their self-esteem and helping them find spiritual grounding. Because families are such an important part of the rehabilitation process, women in the program stay in constant touch, returning home every Sunday to visit and practice the new life skills they have learned. Before a woman is discharged, her family also spends a week living at the treatment center and learning to understand her challenges and take on a supporting role. For women who do not have a supportive home environment, Margarita created the Casa de Medio Camino, or halfway house, where graduates and their young children can stay for up to six months.

Because poverty is such a strong contributing factor to drug use and recidivism, Margarita’s program also emphasizes economic rehabilitation. Albergue staff help women take steps to complete their schooling, and they learn both life and job-related skills through the affiliated Centro de Desarrollo de Habilidades, or skill development center. The center has a thrift store, beauty salon, and catering service where women receive the training they need to enter the workforce, and also learn money management and other financial skills. The ultimate goal is for women to leave the Albergue Feminil or the half-way house with a place to live, a micro-enterprise or new job, and whatever else they might need to return to productive life or start anew.

The women’s relationship with the center continues even after they complete the core set of programs. They attend bi-weekly therapy sessions for six months after graduation, and receive periodic follow-up phone calls for several years. Post-treatment therapy focuses on family relationships and value formation in addition to sobriety. Margarita is currently experimenting with a prevention center for the community where children can stop by for a safe place to study or play, and parents can attend parenting workshops.

The Albergue receives most of its funding from outside sources, charging women only what they can afford. The municipality gave Margarita a permanent free lease on the center’s building, and operating funds come from a 60-member donor network, a lottery, and a number of business enterprises the center has undertaken, including a franchise of a popular convenience store, a painting service that employs graduates, and a day-care center located at the half-way house.Although the Hermosillo program has been a boon to the women of Sonora, Margarita strives to make her program available to all Mexicans who need it, and has already begun working at the state and federal levels to institutionalize the model. She currently serves on Sonora’s State Council Against Addictions, and has reached an agreement with state officials to open a similar facility for men. On the national level, she sits on a committee of the Secretariat of Social Development (SEDESOL), and works with the federal agency for philanthropy, to which most civil society organizations belong, to spread her ideas. Through the contacts she is building, Margarita hopes to convince the federal government to adopt the Albergue model for its own addiction treatment centers, as well as expand their capacity. She envisions her Hermosillo facility serving as a training ground for new staff members, much as Oceánica did for her organization.

Growing up with an alcoholic mother, Margarita experienced firsthand the devastation addiction can cause. Not only was their mother’s life destroyed by it, but Margarita and her siblings also felt the impact of an unstable home life well into adulthood. In many ways, it was Margarita’s religious faith that pulled her through. Even as a child, Margarita held strong religious convictions. During grade school, she founded and led a religious youth group, and by the age of 12 had formed an organization to share a spiritual message with those most in need. In her adult years, however, she rediscovered the strength of her spiritual side only after a particularly difficult period when her husband ran for a high political office in Mexico City. She found herself very unsatisfied and distressed by the political world she witnessed during that time, and chose to stay in Hermosillo and raise her children on her own.

During this time, Margarita resolved to begin addressing some of the poverty and despair she saw around her in Hermosillo’s poor communities. Although she faced disapproval and discouragement from her children, her husband, and her friends, she vowed to persevere. In 1992 she founded and became president of La Posada de Buen Samaritano, a temporary shelter for families who had lost their homes, and the following year opened the Home for Adolescent Women María Goreti to serve those who had no where else to go. In order to maintain a healthy environment, the Home for Adolescent Women accepted only women free of addiction. With time, Margarita began reflecting on her own upbringing, and realized that she was neglecting the group that perhaps needed her most. In 1995 she founded the Centro de Prevención San Bernardo on the outskirts of Hermosillo to rehabilitate women with addictions, and the Albergue Feminil soon followed.