Pubdate: Sat, 05 Aug 2006
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
Copyright: 2006 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Contact: http://www.freenewmexican.com/emailforms/letters.php
Website: http://www.freenewmexican.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695
Author: Diana Heil
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

VOUCHERS HELP FUND ADDICTS' PATH TO RECOVERY

Program's Future Uncertain After Three-Year Federal Grant Expires

Stephanie was an honor-roll student from a good family,  she said, 
when that first blast of heroin filled her  nostrils. She was 17 and 
hanging out in a Santa Fe  college dorm with a bunch of "white 
hippies" and her  boyfriend.

The next four years, she was strung out and ran into  serious trouble 
with the law for dealing drugs. She got  clean for a while, then 
relapsed on July 17, 2005, a  date she remembers as clearly as her birthday.

Around that time, Stephanie -- who says she is a  federally convicted 
felon -- landed in jail for  violating probation. Four months later, 
she entered  Vista Taos Renewal Center, an $18,000-a-month inpatient 
treatment program.

Though her four months there went well, the transition  from a 
resortlike setting back to run-of-the-mill life  in Santa Fe felt 
awkward. She knew she needed support,  but her family couldn't afford 
the outpatient program  she liked at Focused Recovery.

Luckily, someone at Focused Recovery pointed her to a  Santa Fe 
County voucher program called Access to  Recovery. The voucher 
covered 12 weeks of intensive  outpatient treatment, and Stephanie 
still uses it for  group and individual sessions. Now, at age 25, 
she's  being treated for an eating disorder and has been clean  for 
more than a year, she said.

When the voucher runs out this year, Stephanie said,  she's not 
worried because she has a good job with  health insurance. "I'll be 
able to keep on going," she  said. But she still feared to have her 
real name used  in this article because people "don't look at the 
good side of people" when they know you've been a drug  addict.

'It's Going To Come Apart'

On the drug and alcohol treatment scene in Santa Fe  County, the 
voucher program has been a bright spot,  providers say, but when the 
three-year federal grant  expires, the huge pot of treatment dollars 
will dry up.

Another $1.4 million in vouchers came through July 1.  But when that 
grant runs out in a year, no one is sure  whether the state or 
behavioral-health services  contractor ValueOptions of New Mexico 
will keep it  going.

"It's going to come apart," said Marty Klehn, an  addiction counselor 
in private practice. "If we could  keep something like that 
permanent, we could see the  problem (of untreated addiction) 
drastically reduced."

Alcohol and heroin are the most common substances  abused in Santa Fe 
County, providers say, and addiction  can run so rampant in families 
that grandmothers teach  granddaughters how to shoot up.

At CARE Connection, the county's central intake center  for addiction 
and mental-health problems, 1,000 people  have used vouchers over the 
past two years. Consumers  choose from a list of 24 treatment and 
support  programs. The Access to Recovery voucher system has 
attracted new providers to the region, said CARE  Connection's 
clinical director Mark Boschelli, and  competition has encouraged 
directors to rev up their  programs or else lose out.

"I've been around when we didn't have it, and there was  a dearth of 
services," he said.

Yet one voucher per resident, the federally set limit,  isn't enough, 
Boschelli said, since the typical addict  goes through treatment at 
least three times before  abstinence sticks.

Overall, some aspects of the continuum of care  available in Santa Fe 
County have gotten better, though  providers complain about cuts in 
the state budget that  undermine good programs. "We have 
best-practice models,  but the funding needs to increase to make the 
impact  that everyone is looking for," Boschelli said.

Limited Options

A new sobering-up center in downtown Santa Fe -- slated  to open in 
September -- will give police an alternative  when they pick up 
someone who's drunk. Instead of  spending the night in the drunk tank 
or going to the  emergency room, these people can have five days 
without  alcohol or drugs in a supportive place. "It's kind of  like 
an island," said director Richard Lucero.

St. Vincent Regional Medical Center may prescribe drugs  to help 
patients deal with withdrawal, but no doctors  or nurses will be on 
the center's staff, Lucero said.  The hospital does some detox now, 
which is overseen by  clinicians, but critics say it's not enough.

When domestic violence survivors show up drunk and out  of control at 
the Esperanza Shelter, there is no place  to send them, and some go 
home, said agency director  K.C. Quirk. "It's a bad deal for them," she said.

"The only way they can stay at the hospital is if they  say, 'I'm 
going to kill myself,' " said Scott Gilbert,  the former owner of 
Focused Recovery, which opened a  fast-growing Santa Fe office two 
years ago. "What (St.  Vincent doctors) usually do is hand them a 
bunch of  pills and send them home, if they'll even do that." The 
hospital said it stabilizes all such patients but does  not track the 
percentage admitted or sent home.

Gilbert, who still works for Focused Recovery, sends  clients to 
Albuquerque if he can find detox space  there. After spending hours 
searching for detox for one  patient, he said, he decided to sell his 
business this  summer to The Right Step, which operates several detox 
and inpatient programs in Texas.

Gilbert has also had a hard time finding high-quality  inpatient 
programs in New Mexico, especially for  clients with health insurance 
that isn't accepted by  some treatment programs, and sent 170 people 
out of  state last year.

New staff at the Santa Fe Recovery Center, which  emerged out of the 
ashes of another program that went  belly up, have restored the only 
residential treatment  facility in the county. Three months ago, the 
center  added an outpatient treatment program. "We're really  doing 
great," said director Yolanda Briscoe. "We  actually put money in 
savings last month."

But in this business, there's always a caveat. The wait  for a 30-day 
stay at the Santa Fe Recovery Center can  be six weeks, she said, and 
insurance companies are  strict about who can get coverage.

Little help is available overall for young people.  "Adolescent 
mental health and treatment in town --  there's very little, and what 
there is is totally  overwhelmed," said Steve Shepherd, director of 
the county's Health and Human Services Department.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman