Pubdate: Mon, 10 Apr 2000
Source: Staten Island Advance (NY)
Copyright: 2000 Advance Publication Inc.
Contact:  http://www.silive.com/
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Author: Lukas I. Alpert, Associated Press

DAYTOP COUNSELS CHINA ON DRUGS

Beset by addicts, Far East nations are enlisting help from the
Island-born program

Faced with a flourishing drug trade and an increasing number of
addicts, the People's Republic of China has been forced to look for
new methods to battle drug abuse.

And in a twist in its warming relations with the United States, the
Communist nation's search led it to the so-called capital of
capitalism, New York City, and the offices of Daytop Village, which
has gained praise for its international network of residential drug
and alcohol rehabilitation centers.

The addiction problem has forced the normally ideological Chinese
government to become more pragmatic.

China's health officials "were overwhelmed but honest enough to say,
'We don't know what to do,'" said Monsignor William B. O'Brien, a
Roman Catholic priest who founded Daytop on Staten Island in 1963. The
borough is still home to a Daytop program, located in Mariners Harbor.

Since the days of the Communist takeover in 1949 -- when parts of
China were swamped with opium addicts -- the formula for tackling the
drug problem has been much the same: Lock up addicts in military-style
camps to break their habit.

But what little statistics are available showed the old ways didn't
work.

Chinese authorities report the number of known addicts down by 23
percent since 1991. But that still left 596,000 registered addicts in
1998, the latest year for which statistics are available, and
independent researchers say the number of addicts is likely much higher.

China's southernmost province of Yunnan lies along the route from
Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, a major source of illegal drugs.
Yunnan has been stung by wrenching economic reforms -- all of which
have contributed to a major drug problem.

After traveling within the province, Monsignor O'Brien, who celebrates
Sunday Mass at St. Brendan's Parish in the Bronx, said, "We realized
that the kids we met there were just like the kids we had met in the
United States and were faced with similar problems. People don't
realize that China is not so different from here."

China first consulted Daytop in 1989 and has since adopted its
programs on a widespread basis.

"Daytop helped give us direction and a good plan," said Yuan Xiaobo,
executive director of the Yunnan Institute for Drug Abuse, a center
that opened in January under the tutelage of Daytop.

The center, based in Yunnan's capital of Kunming, is the first of its
kind in China, and health officials hope that it may become the model
for other centers around the country, Yuan said during a recent
announcement at Daytop headquarters in Manhattan.

Daytop Village, a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian organization,
operates 25 centers in the United States alone. It has been
instrumental in the development of substance abuse centers around the
world and in training counselors in new approaches to treatment.

First called Daytop Lodge, the experimental 35-bed treatment program
opened in October 1963 in Butler Mansion, Tottenville, an old seaman's
house overlooking Raritan Bay, under the auspices of the Brooklyn
Probation Department. The following year, Monsignor O'Brien took over
the fledgling program and rechristened it Daytop Village. Despite area
residents' protests once they found out about their new neighbor, the
program flourished.

In 1965, Daytop Village officials decided to relocate to the former
Marist Novitiate, Prince's Bay, but neighbors were livid. Despite the
uproar, which included a rock-throwing demonstration, the program
moved to the neighborhood and remained there until 1973. When it shut
down, residents were transferred to a Daytop facility in Manhattan.

Two years later, the program faced a similar hurdle when West Brighton
residents opposed the opening of a Daytop outreach center in a former
bank, located at Broadway and Castleton Avenue.

The center moved to its current site, the former Richmond Racquetball
Club on Forest Avenue, Mariners Harbor, in 1983, undeterred by a
firebombing that welcomed Daytop to the community.

Staten Island, which had fought to keep Daytop from its neighborhoods,
changed its 'tune' in 1988, when the community rallied together for a
fund-raising 25th anniversary rock concert, held at Snug Harbor
Cultural Center, Livingston.

Unlike the boot-camp method previously used, Daytop stresses that
addicts who voluntarily enter its doors take responsibility and
confront their feelings. Run by a staff of mostly Daytop graduates,
the program slowly reintroduces recovering addicts to the outside
world after treatment that can range from one to six months. Long-term
adolescent treatment can last from six months to a year.

The program has treated more than 100,000 people worldwide. In this
country, in-house treatment averages $50 a day and focuses on a
family-style atmosphere with a hierarchical structure.

A newcomer starts as a worker in food service, business or
maintenance. Good behavior earns a step up to the position of
"ramrod," where clients continue to labor menially but oversee the
workers. Continued good behavior moves clients into supervisory roles.
Workers can skip the chain of command to discuss the job, but all
nonwork matters -- requests for home passes or telephone privileges --
must go up the hierarchy and back down.

"By focusing on the structures of the family, the program helps those
afflicted get the confidence to lead drug-free lives," said Monsignor
O'Brien, who attracted national attention to the drug addiction
program born on the Island when Simon & Schuster published his book,
"You Can't Do It Alone: The Daytop Way to Make Your Child Drug Free,"
in 1993.

Daytop has helped train over 500 counselors in China as well as 11
more in the United States on new approaches to treatment and
prevention of drug abuse. With the addition of the center in Kunming,
Daytop's method has been used to train counselors in 59 centers around
the world.

Clearly the need is there. Many of those in training at the Manhattan
headquarters are from countries not thought of as having major drug
problems, such as the Maldives, Indonesia and Malaysia. But these
countries are hit with the problem because they serve as transit
points for narcotics smuggling networks.

Faisal N. Afdhal, who operates a drug treatment center in the
Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said he was particularly attracted to the
Daytop method because "the program is not just about stopping using
drugs, but to improve the quality of life."

Others said resources in their own countries often are used to stop
smuggling, but money for treatment and training is limited.

"This will really be helpful for us," Abdullah Faseeh of the Maldives
said of the Daytop training. "As a small country, we don't have the
great universities and many trained people, so getting a chance like
this is a real help."

(ADVANCE STAFF WRITER Zlati Meyer contributed to this article.)
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