Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jul 2001
Source: Rockford Register Star (IL)
Copyright: 2001 Rockford Register Star
Contact:  http://www.rrstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/370
Author: Chris Green
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

RE-EMERGING FROM DRUGS' GRIP

Monarch Houses Help Young Women Spurn Addiction Through Peer Mentoring And 
Training

ROCKFORD — Joanna Bowersmith thought she was stronger than heroin. She felt 
she could curb the drug habit whenever she wanted.

She was mistaken.

"I didn't feel like getting out of bed in the morning," Bowersmith said of 
her yearlong addiction.

She dropped out of high school and was sent to Monarch House on Main 
Street, a 4-year-old recovery home for adolescent girls. The home is owned 
and operated by Rosecrance Health Network, a local nonprofit adolescent and 
adult drug-treatment agency.

It was there that the 19-year-old Chicago-area woman transformed her life 
from heroin addict to heroine and mentor to nearly a dozen young women who 
call the restored, turn-of-the-century house home.

Bowersmith recently returned to Monarch House to help eight young women 
settle into a new recovery home, Monarch House East.

The century-old, two-story house in Victorian Village offers the same 
12-step drug-recovery program, life-skills training, 24-hour house 
supervision and counseling found at the Main Street Monarch House.

Rosecrance bought Monarch House East, formerly the Victorian Bed and 
Breakfast, this past spring for $320,000. After extensive renovation and 
the addition of period furnishings, the young women moved into the 12-bed 
facility, distinguished by its hardwood floors and rich wood trim, last month.

The homes are the only two of their kind in the region, drawing clients 
through the court system as well as those seeking help on their own, said 
Rosecrance President Phil Eaton. The residents come mostly from northern 
Illinois; others are from as far as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida.

Back into society

Eaton described the Monarch homes as halfway houses for girls.

"It's the next step before transitioning them back into society," he said.

The goal is to provide a recovery-oriented environment with such 12-step 
programs as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous.

"One of the things we often see in youths that need extended recovery-home 
experience is, they lack motivation and self-direction," Eaton said. "The 
Monarch House intentionally addresses and meets those needs."

Bowersmith just completed her freshman year at Rockford College, where she 
is a double major in English and psychology. She described the house's 
atmosphere as a sorority, "only without the drinking."

The all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude the young women have for one 
another exists when they are eating, working and socializing. It also 
exists when there is a conflict. When this happens, there's a house meeting.

"If there is a problem, it doesn't matter where you are — in the shower, in 
the bed, whatever — we all get together and talk about it," Bowersmith 
said. "It's about peer accountability. That's what the house is run on."

Waiting list

Before the addition of Monarch House East, there was a waiting list of 
young women eager to enter the Main Street facility's drug-free and 
structured environment, Eaton said.

The cost is $119 aday for each resident, and government funding for 17 of 
the two houses' combined 22 beds is available.

The average length of stay at a Monarch House is nine months.

Char Whittenburg, who has 10 years' experience in substance-abuse programs, 
is the director of both houses. She wrote and designed a four-level 
treatment program implemented at the houses: Intake, a two-week 
orientation; general, which includes eight to 16 weeks of meeting with a 
sponsor three times a week, maintaining at least a "C" average in school, 
following house rules, chairing a house meeting and finding a job; 
prementor, during which more privileges, such as more free time in the 
community, are given; and mentor, during which one serves as a big sister 
to the other women.

Under the supervision of Whittenburg and a 24-hour on-site Rosecrance staff 
member, the young women learn such life skills as managing a budget, 
maintaining a checking account, weekly grocery shopping, cooking and doing 
household chores yard work in addition to attending school or working a 
part-time job. Also, all the residents must undergo random drug tests, 
usually given every two months.

"When they complete the program, we transition them back home to their 
family, to college or independent living," Whittenburg said. "We try to 
give them the tools to go back out there and live a sober and productive 
lifestyle."

Bowersmith plans to do just that. For the first time in two years, she will 
return to her home on Chicago's West Side for her first extended stay 
before returning to Rockford College in the fall. She has no intentions on 
falling back into the same routine and hanging around the same people who 
led to her addiction.

Awaiting her at home is her mother, a summer job doing data-entry work and 
a part-time job as a nanny.

"It's a reason to get out of bed in the morning," she said. "You're counted 
on to be somewhere. It's about accountability and respect."
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MAP posted-by: GD