Lagging Funds Doesn't Stop Therapist's Drug-free Mission

A mission to help those afflicted by drug and alcohol abuse would not come to an end after Judy McGehee, a licensed marriage and family therapist, moved her clinic from Glendora to Pasadena.

With state and federal funding  for tobacco prevention cut to zero, despite the ready availability of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol to Glendora minors with the resources, McGehee , who runs the Glendora-based clinic Partners in Recovery, stepped in to help these children stay in school and live a clean and healthy life. 

When police discovered Ecstasy possession at a Glendora Unified middle school last year, McGehee and her internship program partner Petar Sardelich stepped in to offer advice to parents.

“Petar and I came from the standpoint of talking to your kids, have mealtimes with your kids,” said McGehee, about a speech she delivered at a meeting last year to parents. “Know where your kids are going, know who they are talking to. Know the parents of your kid’s friends. Do things together and be more aware, more alert, and educate yourself about drugs out there.” 

McGehee co-coordinates an understaffed program — built on local university students who need counseling service hours before becoming licensed — that faces an uphill climb to service the needs of students at a time when  has experienced draconian cuts in recent years.    

State and federal funds might have expired, but that has not curbed with potentially dangerous substances like prescription drugs and grab bag substance concoctions like Four Loko -- a can of beer and caffeine that was routinely being bought by minors at one local drug store.   

 “In a recessed economy where education has seen massive cutbacks, especially in the areas of counseling/mental health and drug/alcohol prevention, we cannot express enough  gratitude to Judy McGehee for filling a need that otherwise would otherwise leave students and their parents in serious peril,” said Melissa Germann, Glendora Unified’s coordinator of Safe/ Drug Free in an e-mail.

McGehee is a member of the GUSD Safe/ Drug Free Schools and Community Advisory Committe. She offers pro bono counseling service to four students without healthcare. Through her extensive work with local children, McGehee states “every week or two I find there is something new found by kids to destroy themselves.”

“(The Glendora Unified academic numbers) don’t paint the portrait of all the children,” McGehee said.  “We are talking about all our kids. Many of our kids do not fit into any of those categories: the wealth of the families, not the scores, many of those kids aren’t even present to take the test that reflects those scores. They’ve already dropped out.”

McGehee, who speaks with the conviction of someone on a mission, has spent much of her professional career helping those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. 

At one time she was an instructional aide at the Alhambra School District. During her time there, she found a knack for counseling had her bosses pushing her to help troubled students. McGehee spent time helping the drug/ alcohol community in Alhambra, an issue that sent her youngest son at 16 to rehab. 

“Seeing that in the community got me encouraged to look for an occupation once my kids got older that I could use some skills I had been born with,” McGehee said. 

For 15 years McGehee ran a drug and alcohol program for adolescents in Pasadena.  After her time in Alhambra she would go to school for her undergraduate degree then graduate degree and then her license in marriage and family therapy.

During a School Attendance Review Board meeting, McGehee would hear Germann say that school site support staff, like counselors, were being cut. She would offer her services and reach out to colleagues at Covina-based groups Aurora Charter Oak and Social Model Recovery to help students free of charge

“I still have to work to pay my overhead,” McGehee said. “Nobody is going to pay for my rent, my telephone, my gas, my electric here, unless I make enough to make that work. I can’t pay myself for those 20 hours.” 

Michael Cardenas, a master’s student at LaVerne University and intern in McGehee’s program, said his goals at Whitcomb is to help students learn how to set goals, socialize, resolve conflict, and be good human beings.   

“When history looks back at people who make a difference, you’ll see that she was there behind the scenes orchestrating this in the community,” Cardenas said.  “It’s not a religion, but it comes from a real spiritual place. It’s a fellowship.”

McGehee said sometime in the future she would like to expand the program from two interns to eight, with two counselors at schoolsites Whitcomb, Goddard and Sandburg and two at her office. For this to happen, the program needs funding, something that does not appear likely to come in the next several years.

In the absence of state funding, Glendora Unified officials said they are grateful for the free service McGehee has offered.

“We’re so appreciative Judy and her team has come in to work with us and our students,” Glendora Superintendent Robert Voors said.  “Sometimes we’re the best shots students have. Parents might not have the strategy, the know-how, the capability to help at a level they need. Judy and her team certainly do.”