Shelly McNamee-Fetzer knew she wanted to turn her life around for herself as well as her five daughters.

But it wasn’t easy.

At 45, she’d invested a lifetime into escalating bad behavior, drugs and failed relationships. She didn’t have the tools to make the turnaround she dreamed about on her own.

But now, McNamee-Fetzer is one of the first two people to graduate the Butler County Behavioral Health Court. Their success was celebrated Tuesday with a ceremony, certificate and cake in the courtroom of presiding Judge Timothy McCune.

To achieve graduation, McNamee-Fetzer completed a rehabilitation program, attained independent, clean living and regained custody of her 3-year-old daughter.

“This program works,” she said.

Behavioral Health Court, a third leg to the county’s treatment-based court programming, began last year.

Although the program can accept a maximum of 30 people, currently there are 21 participants, including McNamee-Fetzer and her fellow graduate, a 50-year-old man who wished to remain unnamed.

The court is designed to divert defendants whose significant mental health issues are the primary cause of their crimes away from the traditional justice system. They instead are given treatment and tools for rehabilitation and readjustment.

Participants generally are referred by members of the legal community, including district judges and attorneys. But anybody can make a referral.

A treatment team, which includes McCune, probation officer Erin McGarrity and a half-dozen other people, helps design a personalized program for the defendant.

If the defendant succeeds, he would be offered a reduction in the sentence. If he fails the program, he goes back into the traditional court system.

McCune has spent 35 years of his career in the criminal justice system, with the last two decades as district attorney and judge.

“I am more empathetic now,” said McCune who has supervised a similar program for veterans since 2013. Butler County Judge William Shaffer supervises a program offered to defendants whose crimes are related to drug addiction. “I have gotten to know the individuals’ strengths and weaknesses. Most of the people who come before me (as a judge), they’re just a case number.”

McCune said one of the keys to the treatment court is recognizing that not all problems have quick fixes.

“Like when we put people on probation, it’s a rule that they don’t use drugs. Is that realistic, if they’re a hard-core drug addict, that they will just stop taking drugs that minute?” McCune asked.

Instead the treatment program includes long-term solutions and therapeutic punishment for what McCune calls “hiccups” in the person’s progress. The defendant might, for example, be ordered to increase drug treatment or have a curfew or community service in lieu of jail time.

“I can lock people up in the prison, and they’ll stop taking drugs but when they get out they’ll get back into the same cycle,” McCune said of the big-picture view this program takes. “Stick with this, and you will be successful.”

However, if the program is not working, a person is placed back into criminal court.

McGarrity, who serves as the participants’ probation officer, also speaks well of the program.

“For a lot of recipients, the biggest impact has been with relationships that they have gained or rebuilt as a result of them getting well. These people deserve that.” McGarrity said. “They learn that they can manage their symptoms and have a productive life, happy and successful life ... just as if they had a heart condition and needed to manage that.”

McGarrity said McNamee-Fetzer’s success demonstrates the potential in this program. But, she said, for McNamee-Fetzer it was a conscious choice to turn things around.

“I came from a bad background,” said McNamee-Fetzer, who recalls committing her first crime in grade school. “I robbed the church down the street. I took toys.”

Then, she said she was “acting out” to mask the secret that was eating her up inside: She’d been molested as a 5-year-old.

“I slept in the bathtub,” she said, explaining there were signs something wasn’t right.

By age 15, McNamee-Fetzer dropped out of school in the ninth grade, was living on her own in a Pittsburgh neighborhood and spending a lot of time with people much older.

She also tried marijuana and LSD.

“I was using drugs trying to get rid of the hurt,” she said.

Working as a nursing assistant to feed her lifestyle, she eventually moved up to cocaine and crack.

“When I hit the bars I thought I had arrived. I bartended, and I thought that was what life was all about. I didn’t try heroin until I moved to Butler (in 2004).”

McNamee-Fetzer first married at age 25. He first husband “was straight laced” and they argued over her partying.

That first marriage failed, and two later marriages followed the same path.

There were constant arguments about her escalating drug problems.

“My (second) husband would be sitting up waiting for me all night,” she said. “He wanted me to stay home and be a mom, but I’d disappear for weeks at a time.”

McNamee-Fetzer had children at ages 23, 30, 35, 38 and 42.

During that same time, McNamee-Fetzer committed numerous crimes, including assault and retail theft.

“I would take jewelry, clothes ... anything I could walk out of the store with,” she said. “I would trade them for drugs.”

By the time she reached the Behavioral Health Court, she already was sentenced to serve probation until 2028 and faced a new, probation violation.

She said she tried to change her life on her own, but every time she relapsed into drug use.

“It felt like a revolving door in and out of prison or probation,” she said. “I wanted my children back in my life, but I didn’t know how to do it.”

Her parole officer knew about the abuse as a child, and that McNamee-Fetzer carries a mental health diagnosis of bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and border line schizophrenia.

The parole officer put the ball in motion for McNamee-Fetzer to enter the Behavioral Health Court.

Twelve months later, she’s a graduate looking toward her future.

As part of the program she went into rehab in Ohio. Then, she lived in a sober house followed by a group home and then an apartment. When she ultimately rented a two-bedroom apartment in Butler she regained custody of her 3-year-old daughter.

“She had been living with my sister since she was 18 days old,” McNamee-Fetzer said.

She is planning to go back to school to learn how to be an advocate for people who are facing similar life problems.

“I’d like to go into schools and tell them what’s out there,” she said. “That it can be done. You can change.”