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Rehab program for teens needs own helping hand
Rehab program for teens needs own helping hand
By Sherri M. Owens Sentinel Staff Writer LEESBURG -- The Bone Thugs-n-Harmony poster is gone now. The pastel quilt and leopard-print pillowcase are packed away. The beds are empty and hallways quiet. The teens who once found refuge at the residential drug-rehabilitation program called Teen Choice are gone, their treatment cut short because the program ran out of money. Counselors and administrators are hoping a last-minute money miracle revives the program, the core of the only residential facility for teen addicts in Lake and Sumter counties. "We are trying to see what we can do to get them some money so they won't have to close," said Tim Bottcher, spokesman for the state Department of Children & Families. Teen Choice at LifeStream Behavioral Center in Leesburg accepted its first clients in March, using $200,000 from the state to get started. Program directors asked for $400,000 -- a fraction of the $9 million allocated for substance-abuse programs in the state budget for next year -- but the request was denied. Without more money, the program will close Sept. 30, said Jonathan Cherry, Lifestream president and chief executive officer. DCF and the state drug czar came up with a recommendation for how the $9 million should be spent. That recommendation was sent to the Legislature in the second week of August, Bottcher said. "It does not include Teen Choice," he said. "We came up with a set of priorities that included prevention, services for elder abuse of drugs and expansion of detox service. Teen Choice did not fit into that." Of the $9 million set aside for substance-abuse programs next year, DCF has asked, among other things, that: Statewide science-based prevention programs get $1.6 million. The Center for Drug Free Living in Orlando get $725,000. Elderly services in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties get $600,000. DCF's recommendations include no substance-abuse funding specifically for Lake and Sumter counties, although the 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey showed a higher rate of drug use in Lake and Sumter than in the state as a whole. For instance, while 5.4 percent of high school students polled statewide said they had used cocaine in their lifetimes, the figure doubled, to 10.4 percent, in Lake County. And while 5.6 percent of high school students statewide said they had used amphetamines in their lifetime, the number nearly tripled, to 15.1 percent, in Lake. Also, when students in the survey were asked about their drug use during the past 30 days, 34.8 percent of respondents statewide said they had used "alcohol or any illicit drug." But 39.3 percent in Lake said they had done the same. Orange County, the most heavily populated in Central Florida, reported 30.5 percent of teens using alcohol or any illicit drug -- less than the statewide average. Yet Orange County is among the jurisdictions slated to get funding for a media campaign, an Informed Families program and expanded detoxification services. Statewide statistics show that much of the teen drug use in Florida is declining. According to survey results released late last year, marijuana use has dropped 13 percent in middle schools and 5 percent in high schools, Ecstasy use is down 29 percent from a year ago, and heroin use is down to less than half of 1 percent. "But we still have these kids," said Dave Rattray, program supervisor for Teen Choice, referring to his patients. E-mails share stories A 15-year-old girl in black flip-flops and blue jeans was among the last three patients to leave Teen Choice recently. She was being treated after having been removed from her home and placed in state custody. Her mother introduced her to heroin when the girl was 8 years old. She sat around a long table with two boys, ages 17 and 14, who were being treated at Teen Choice as an alternative to juvenile jail and a criminal record. The children's names are being withheld because of their ages and the nature of their dependency. "When I get out of here, I want to go and talk to other kids so they won't get into drugs," the girl said, finishing an exercise in her workbook, Stop the Chaos: How to Get Control of Your Life by Beating Booze and Drugs by Allen Tighe. "It might be too early for that," her counselor cautiously answered. "Well, I want to have a couple of years of sobriety first," the ninth-grade girl said. "Good idea," the counselor said. "You can't help others until you can help yourself." Learning to help oneself is what Teen Choice is all about. Rattray e-mailed several letters from former patients at the center to Gov. Jeb Bush, telling him how much the program means to them and asking him to help keep it going. "I'm 14 and I haven't even started my life yet, and I was ruining it so bad," one boy wrote. "Not even my own parents trusted me to leave their sight and that's pretty messed up for a 14-year-old. Teen Choice has showed me how to walk down the right path and trust people in order for them to do the same. I truly believe this program is one of the funnest and understandable I've ever been to." 'There wasn't another way' The Teen Choice patients who had to cut their treatment short because of the program's financial programs were invited to return weekly for after-care. Some may sign up for outpatient treatment, including group counseling. But those programs don't remove children from the daily exposure to drugs, as a residential program does, Rattray said. "I used to do outpatient, and I would watch when one boy left and his friend would come and pick him up after the thing. You could smell the pot when he opened the door," Rattray said, adding that outpatient treatment might work for some, but not for those he worked with in Teen Choice. "For these kids in here, there wasn't another way for them." A south Lake County mother agrees. Her 16-year-old daughter started with marijuana and alcohol and escalated to cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. The girl eventually admitted she had a problem with drugs, and her parents put her in outpatient counseling. After a while, "we believed she was clean," said the mother. "The counselor believed it, too. But she hadn't been clean for a day." A frantic search led the family to Teen Choice. The girl finished the program this summer. "Things are wonderful now," her mother said. "She's our daughter again. When I heard that the program might close, it terrified me. If we had no place to take her -- whoo! We wouldn't have her. She would be gone." A new circle of friends It's important for teen addicts to be in a controlled environment so they can escape the heavy influences of their peers, who often are addicts, too, Rattray said. If a child's circle of friends uses drugs, it's often difficult for a child to face those friends and be strong enough to say no to the drugs. It's also tough for them to pull away and choose new friends. "The hardest thing for teens in terms of recovery is how to change friends," Rattray said. Forcing them to leave those destructive friendships for a while helps, he said. The 14-year-old 10th-grade patient with diamond-cut studs in his ears said he got his first marijuana joint from a friend. By the time the boy was 11, his mother noticed a change in his behavior and asked him if he were using drugs. He said no, but elderly neighbors intervened and persuaded his parents to look deeper. He has been in the rehabilitation program two months and hoped to finish another two months before he learned of the closing. "They should really give this place a chance," he said of the decision-makers and the lack of cash for Teen Choice. "If they come over here, they will notice how much it was helping us." The patients were housed in a 12-bed dormitory. They were schooled on campus and got regular class credit. They had two hours of group counseling each weekday and some one-on-one treatment sessions. They participated in 12-step groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, meeting three or four times a week. Volunteers came in to teach crafts, the teens went to the YMCA regularly for recreation, and family visits were allowed on Sundays. "The more normal we make life the better," Rattray said. A small-town 17-year-old former Teen Choice patient said the program saved his life. He started with marijuana when his stepfather gave him his first smoke at age 12. He graduated to cocaine, stealing and committing other crimes to feed his habit. Today, when he should be a high school senior he is in ninth grade. "Teen Choice was my last alternative," he said. "I didn't think I needed it, but it has made a lot difference." He completed about 31/2 months of a four-month program and is sad to hear that the program may not be available for others like him. "I look back at life and all my family members who have been in jail all because of drugs," he said. "I never could see that when I was on drugs. Teen Choice showed me a new way to live." http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...103aug31.story |
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