THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602150181
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: SPECIAL REPORT: Substance abuse
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
ON THE LONG LINE - or continuum, as they say in the human services business - of services for substance abusers, those offered by the Detox Center come near the end.
Those who need the services have, for the most part, reached the stage where drugs and alcohol control their lives. Some will be able to regain control. For others, that end of the continuum becomes a dead end.
The Detox Center and the Day Support program, known together as the Recovery Center, are the most intensive services available under the Virginia Beach Community Services Board's Comprehensive Substance Abuse Program (CSAP).
The Detox Center had its roots in community and volunteer involvement. The movement began in the late 1970s after a handful of incidents in which intoxicated individuals in police custody or in the city jail died for lack of treatment.
The causes of death varied, but most occurred because police officers and jail personnel lacked the training necessary to recognize the seriousness of the situation.
At a Community Services Board budget hearing in the late 1970s, speaker after speaker - many of them recovering alcoholics or concerned family members - recounted the horror stories and pleaded for a way to keep those found ``drunk in public'' out of jail.
Finally, it was the turn of then-sheriff Joe Smith to speak.
``Ladies and gentlemen,'' he said, approaching the lectern slowly and measuring each word, ``I think that what we have here is agreement. You don't want your drunks in my jail and I don't want your drunks in my jail.''
For a moment, there was a kind of stunned silence, then Smith continued. ``I mean no disrespect. I simply mean that jail is no place for someone suffering from the sicknesses of alcohol.''
His well-chosen words, pointing out the obvious, helped heal the breach between law enforcement and those who advocated for the needs of problem drinkers. Shortly thereafter, the board, recognizing that many inmates had serious substance-abuse problems, assigned a counselor to work with prisoners and jail personnel.
Today, the Community Services Board employs the equivalent of 6 1/2 full-time positions in its jail services substance-abuse program.
In 1984, the Detox Center was opened on the grounds of the old Princess theater on Virginia Beach Boulevard. It had 12 beds, an adequate number for the times. It now has 14, not nearly enough.
``We have a full house most of the time,'' supervisor Clyde Vandivort said. ``It's a sad commentary, not on Virginia Beach, but on the world in general, that there are so many people who need the service.''
Last year, the center admitted 1,670 clients. Sixty percent were new admissions; the other 40 percent had checked into the facility on one or more previous occasions for substance-abuse problems.
The adjoining Recovery Center, which offers treatment programs for outpatients, many of whom came in through the Detox program, recently shortened the length of its daily programs to keep pace with demand.
Its 28-day treatment programs provide counseling, group therapy and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Treatment is similar to that in private residential settings except that clients go home each evening.
``We switched from one eight-hour session each day to two shorter sessions by cutting out some of the things like recreation programs,'' Vandivort said. ``That way, we've managed to avoid having a waiting list.''
While high-end programs such as Detox and Day Support are the ones that draw the most attention, CSAP also is involved in preventing substance abuse and providing counseling and support services for substance abusers before their problems become so severe.
Many of the prevention programs are aimed at the group most at risk for getting into drugs and alcohol: preteens and young adolescents.
Counseling services also are offered for individuals who have developed drug or alcohol problems but are not yet at the point where they require intensive treatment.
CSAP director Kathryn Hall shares at least one major concern with her counterparts in the mental health and mental retardation programs.
``I would love to know that we're going to have stable short-term housing for our clients. Thirty percent of those in treatment are homeless,'' said Hall, who has been program director since 1988. ``We get them clean and feeling good about themselves. But the next step is a safe, affordable place to live while they're getting on their feet. Without that support, things can fall apart very quickly.''
Funding for that housing is difficult to find at a time when local, state and federal lawmakers are searching for every possible means of cutting costs at the same time the number of uninsured and underinsured clients who must rely on public services continues to increase.
Medicaid, which covers some mental health and mental retardation services, does not cover any substance-abuse services currently administered by the board.
The number of consumers seeking substance-abuse help alone from the Community Services Board has risen 43 percent in the past four years, from 2,233 clients in 1992 to an estimated 3,200 clients this year.
Donald V. Jellig, chairman of the Virginia Beach Community Services Board, said he sees area-wide cooperation as a way to solve funding problems.
``We need to get together so that we can have economies of scale,'' said Jellig, an administrator with Sentara Enterprises and the Sentara Health System, who was appointed to the board in 1991.
Among those whom he would enlist in the cooperative effort are community services boards in other Hampton Roads jurisdictions, employers, managed care organizations and the Navy.
``Health care is delivered at the local level,'' he said. ``It's you, your doctor and your community.'' MEMO: SPECIAL REPORT: SUNDAY: MENTAL ILLNESS, WEDNESDAY: MENTAL RETARDATION,
TODAY: SUBSTANCE ABUSE.
[For a related story, see page 13 for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: ``We get them clean and feeling good about themselves. But the
next step is a safe, affordable place to live while they're getting
on their feet.''
Kathryn Hall, program director
GRAPHIC
SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES CONSUMERS
COMMUNITY SERVICES BOARD EXPENDITURES
SOURCE: Community Service Board
The Virginian-Pilot
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
CALL FOR HELP
COMMUNITY SERVICES BOARD MEMBERS
Donald V. Jellig (chair):
687-1300
Priscilla Beede (vice chair):
468-2357
Frank Buck: 430-0318
Robert F. Hagans: 627-8284
Mary W. Johnson: 464-2112
John N. Parker: 481-2282
Edward L. Richardson:
427-3222
John Y. Richardson Jr.:
624-2600
Forrest M. Sullivan: 481-1998
Jerry Tata: 499-2490
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dennis Wool: 437-5766
KEYWORDS: SUBSTANCE ABUSE by CNB