Pubdate: Sun, 22 Apr 2007
Source: Ledger, The (Lakeland, FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Ledger
Contact:  http://www.theledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795
Author: Robin Williams Adams, The Ledger
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

RELIGIOUS GROUP TO HOLD FEET TO FIRE

LAKELAND - Two major health needs in Polk County - residential drug- 
abuse treatment and accessible, affordable medical care - will be in 
the spotlight Monday when the Polk Ecumenical Action Council for 
Empowerment, or PEACE, holds its seventh Nehemiah Action accountability rally.

PEACE, with members from more than 20 congregations countywide, 
provides a confrontational conscience on local social issues. At 
times it pushes governing groups, such as the public school system, 
to try approaches they haven't taken before.

With these two topics, however, the group has some strong allies.

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd worked with PEACE in compiling statistics on 
Polk's limited number of treatment beds for drug and alcohol abusers.

Employees of Polk County's Community Health and Social Services unit, 
although perceived as too slow in getting primary care medical 
clinics up and running, say they too want the process to move faster.

PEACE wants more than support, however. It wants timetables and 
specifics, delivered concisely and rapidly, at the 7 p.m. public 
rally at Cypress Cathedral in Winter Haven.

So who's going to be on the hot seat this time?

Ed Smith. The county unit he directs runs the Polk HealthCare plan 
and is responsible for other indigent health-care spending. PEACE 
members want to know when primary care clinics are coming to their cities.

Gaye Williams, executive director of Central Florida Health Care. The 
Polk County Commission approved a contract last week for her to open 
a primary care clinic in Lakeland and PEACE wants to know more about 
it and what's planned elsewhere.

Polk County commissioners. From them, PEACE wants commitment to set 
up a program to get more rehabilitation beds into Polk County. It's 
also likely to tell commissioners they promised a primary care clinic 
by September 2006 and one a year for the next four years after that.

"We want them to tell us what they are willing to do about setting up 
a substance-abuse rehabilitation program," said the Rev. Ronnie Clark 
of Hurst AME in Winter Haven and a PEACE co-chairman.

"It's a good issue, a good cause. It will do a lot to help our communities."

Polk County has 21 residential beds for treatment, compared with 280 
available and 75 more on the way for Volusia County, said the Rev. 
Chris Hoffmann of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Haines City.

"There's no way the 21 beds we've got are going to be enough," said 
Hoffman, the other PEACE co-chairman. He said more than 40,000 people 
in Polk County need substance-abuse treatment.

Adding more rehabilitation is "an integral part of holistic crime 
fighting," Judd said.

"It's not enough to just lock up criminals. We must break the cycle 
of crime," he said.

"It's not being soft on crime. It's being tough on crime from every direction."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom