AHS Views

A treatment program called Gateway, with several facilities in Illinois, is having its funding cut by $11 million. To try to stay open without that money, they’re reducing their 90 – 120 day treatment plan to 30 days. In fact, they’re even kicking out their current clients if they arrived before January 1st – right in the middle of treatment! Most of these people are going to leave still needing addiction help to stay straight!

Gateway would do much better to service fewer people but be able to work with them long enough to get them fully rehabilitated. That way they’ll be able to go back out into society and lead a productive life instead of getting back into drugs or alcohol. 30 days is barely enough time to get them off the drug and functioning more normally – then they need the time to address why they got addicted in the first place and set them up so it won’t happen again.

Really. What’s the point of ‘treating’ a lot of people without getting that result?

Some of the people being forced to leave the facility are worried.

“A lot of the peers that are here are terrified to go home and scared they’re just going to be sent back to the same environment they came from, with all the same friends, and not enough skills to stay away from what they need to stay away from,” Aston, an 18-year-old heroin addict who started smoking marijuana when he was 10, recently told a reporter covering the story.

And Gateway Director Steve Wierman is also concerned, rightfully so, about being able to get results with short-term treatment plans. “We’re not in favor of doing that. We believe in long term treatment but we got to get paid or we can’t stay open,” he said. Understood, but what about the results?

It has been proven over and over again that a long-term drug rehab program is really necessary to get someone all the help they need to stay off drugs. And if they don’t stay off them after treatment, you’ve really wasted time and money. And set the person up to fail.

What kind of treatment is that?

I don’t usually watch reality shows, but I have to say that some of the legal/police type shows that take on social issues can be very insightful. Recently, when discussing the problem of drug addiction, someone on TV asked ‘Why don’t they just burn all the poppy fields?” The response – “Because there has to be a war on something or the people in Washington wouldn’t get elected.” That was probably an old show because the war on drugs certainly isn’t the only war in town right now, but it does make you wonder about the true intentions of the powers that be when there are, really, some pretty simple solutions to the war on drugs available. At least from the standpoint of getting people through drug treatment successfully.

The country spends millions, or billions, on various drug treatment methods and facilities -but a large portion of them don’t even work! They’re out-patient facilities, week or month-long residential programs that are barely enough to dry the person out, halfway houses (may be fine AFTER a real drug rehab program to help the person get their lives in order), and so on.

But, there are tons of facilities and drug treatment programs that have high success rates. Why not drop the programs that only rehabilitate 30% of their clients and throw more support behind those that see success for 70%?

A short-term or out-patient drug rehab program may work for some, but don’t make the mistake of trying one of those first – chances are they’ll be a waste of time and money.

More importantly, you and the person you’re trying to help can get very discouraged by attempting something that fails and it might be very difficult, if not impossible, to get the addict to try again.

Check with Addiction Help Services counselors to find out what’s best for your situation before you make any decisions. They know all the programs, all the treatment methods, and can assess your situation to find out what’s best.  
 

A new program in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is attempting to educate people on the dangers of substance abuse before it becomes a problem. One of their methods is to survey people who come into hospital emergency rooms for heart palpitations and other conditions that are symptoms of drug abuse. They’re focus is to let people know about the dangers of drugs, and offer them addiction help if they ask for it.

I guess there’s a possibility that they’ll nip a few potential addictions in the bud. Someome who’s been taking drugs for a while might not bother going to a hospital for something like heart palpitations because they would already have experienced it in the past, know that it comes with the territory, and think the palpitations will pass.

Unfortunately for some, those heart palpitations won’t pass at all – the person could even wind up dead.

On the other hand, those who are new to drugs may not expect anything like that, get scared, and go to the hospital.  If they’re told that they can expect heart palpitations, and many, many other side effects, including drug addiction, which would undoubtedly lead to many other, even more serious problems, maybe they’ll think twice about doing it again.

Not too many parents actually educate their kids about drugs – although they might tell them not to take them – so a lot of people enter adulthood without understanding their consequences.

If you have a young adult family member who has not yet been told about heart palpitations, ER visits, and all the other disasters that can happen on drugs, make sure you educate them now. It would be a shame to have their first real education take place in an emergency room.

If there’s already a problem, get help through Addiction Help Services.

Chicago’s St. Viator High School is taking hair samples to test kids for drug use. So far, they’ve tested about 500 kids – half the student body – and only two tested positive. In the face of national statistics, this sounds pretty impossible. 10 percent of high school seniors have taken Vicodin according to a 2006 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey, and more than 36 percent of ninth graders reported drinking in the month prior to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) study. Obviously, there’s a ton of kids out there who need drug rehab, or are going to sometime in the future, but St. Viator’s testing isn’t catching it.

The problem that the testing does not include alcohol, prescription drug abuse, inhalants or steroids. The school says “We can’t be taking urine samples every day to find out if they’ve been drinking.” But what’s the point of testing if they’re not going to find the major problems?

They’re spending $75,000 on this program and so far have two positive tests. One of the teachers in the school did an informal survey on the students’ reaction to the testing: the consensus was that it might get them to switch from the drug they’re currently using to a drug not included in the test, or to alcohol.

The teacher said he wonders if the money would be better spent on drug education. Good idea. It might save 300 or 400 kids from having to find a successful drug rehab program in the future.

I read an article today about the residents of Washington Heights, an area in upper Manhattan, protesting a drug rehab opening right behind a school. “Why would you put a drug facility right on a street where there are drugs, constantly drugs?” comments one of the residents. That’s like asking why would you want to bring a policeman into an area where there’s crime. Washington Heights is notorious for its drug abuse problems, and has been for nearly 30 years. The place would probably do better if there was a drug rehab behind every school, not just one.

Residents are afraid that the facility will expose more kids to drugs – no, it will expose more kids to people who want to get off drugs. That’s a different story. It might even inspire some of the local addicts to get help, and it might run off some of the dealers.

There are different types of drug rehabs: there’s the kind that just pay lip service to rehabilitiation – methadone clinics are a good example – and there are those that help people get down to the bottom of why someone is taking drugs and actually enables them to begin a new life. The latter is a successful drug rehab program. If the new facility in Washington Heights follows that model, residents should count their blessings.

A big change in the life of Lindsay Lohan – she’s vowed to move away from Hollywood to stay off drugs. After meeting with her dad, whom she hasn’t seen since he went to prison for DUI and other charges two years ago. Looks like they’ve both been pretty messed up. Lohan has checked into a drug rehab in Utah, no word on whether dad’s handled his own alcohol or drug problem.

It takes a lot of courage to leave Hollywood when you’re in Lohan’s position. It isn’t as if she’s at the end of her career – it’s really just beginning. But, if she doesn’t get off drugs, her career won’t have much of a chance anyway. And worse, her life may end a lot sooner than she expects.

Hopefully, she’ll make it through her drug rehab program with flying colors and, if she’s stable enough, she can go back to Hollywood and resume her career.

The Wardle Academy, a center in Cheyenne, Wyoming that provides both prison facilities and substance abuse treatment for young people, has recently had a rash of incidents where the kids in jail have beat up the kids in drug treatment. As a result, the state has removed about 2 dozen kids to other drug treatment facilities, and is possibly going to remove more by the end of September. The kids being relocated are between 12 and 17 years old – that’s the kids who are there for substance abuse treatment – and are being placed in drug rehab programs where they will be safe.

There’s a bunch of political stuff going on with this – the facility says the state hasn’t removed any kids, the state says they have, one report says the state is withdrawing the facility’s license for substance abuse treatment, another report says they might renew it, etc., etc. etc. The usual stuff.

But nevermind all that – they’ve got 12-year-olds kids in there for alcohol and drug abuse! And when they get there, they’re getting beaten up by the kids in jail. On top of that, there was a 26 year old guy arrested there within the last week or two on suspicion of selling and delivering cocaine. Officials won’t reveal his connection with the facility.

All in all, a messy scene. Not conducive to successful drug rehab – that’s for sure. If you’re looking at checking into rehab, or helping someone you care about get off drugs, make sure you find a drug rehab program that’s safe. It’s almost impossible for a person to get down to the bottom of their drug problem and be rehabilitated in a threatening environment.

According to a recent article in the Honolulu Advisor, one in 10 adults in Hawaii needs drug rehab. This is a pretty outrageous statistic – look at the houses on either side of you and the two across the street: someone in those houses needs to get into a drug rehab program.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, one of the biggest problems in Hawaii is methamphetamine. Not only has it harmed the state’s economic and social structure, it has also increased crime and violence. In fact, more than 80% of federal drug cases in Hawaii were methamphetamine related.

However, the state has had some recent success in getting people into treatment: a campaign to remove the stigma connected to drug abuse has resulted in a nearly 17 percent increase in drug rehab admissions.

The current campaign, a celebration of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, focuses on the successes.

Hawaii currently has 50 drug rehab programs. It’s time to jump on the bandwagon and find a program that’s right for you or your loved one. Hawaii is one of the most beautiful spots in the world, let’s keep it that way.

Former drug court graduates plan to take out their bikes to raise funds for people who want to end their drug addiction, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. The bikers intend to use any money raised to help pay expenses and housing for new people entering drug rehab through the courts.

One of the graduates, who’s been riding motorcycles for 35 years, says that the drug court “saved his life.”

The drug courts in Utah are set up to help people who commit minor drug-related offenses stay out of prison – if you complete a long-term alcohol or drug rehab program successfully, the charges can be reduced or even dismissed.

Right now over 400 adult offenders in Utah participate in the courts. The Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Heath reports that 84% of people enrolled in a drug rehab program through the courts have had zero arrests while in the program.

There are more than 13,000 drug rehab programs in the country, but only a small number of them are non-hospital inpatient centers. In fact, according to the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, nearly 90% of people attending a drug rehab program in 2005 underwent outpatient services, while only 7% enrolled in long term inpatient care.

Part of the problem with this is that there simply aren’t enough beds at inpatient drug rehab programs for the people who need them. One reason is because insurance companies try hard to divert people to outpatient programs, and people are more willing to try what their insurance will pay for than try to get the best help possible.

Another problem is the scarcity of inpatient centers in some areas. The government funding for drug rehab programs is often based on populations, so there are plenty of scenarios where a more rural area has very limited bed space despite possibly having a higher ratio of substance abusers than a more urban locality.

So what does somebody do when they’re trying to find an inpatient center? Well, you can contact us at Addiction Help Services, and we can help locate inpatient drug rehab programs around the country.