Pubdate: Tue, 24 Dec 2002
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Anne Blythe

NOT READY, NOT YET

Halfway House Helps Addicts But Says Help From State Is Decreasing

CHAPEL HILL -- Bill Renn has seen utter joy cleanse the face of a drug user 
who has been straight just 30 days. But the board member of Freedom House 
Recovery Center worries about the future of Orange County's only 
community-based detoxification program as state budget cuts siphon dollars 
from social services. "Funding sources are all drying up," said Renn, who 
is also program director for the UNC Alcohol and Substance Abuse Outpatient 
Treatment Program. "Money is just very, very difficult, and the first to go 
are always the substance abuse and mental health programs."

Those programs help people such as Cathy Wall.

She was 9 when she took her first drink. She tried crack at 26. At 30, the 
Rockingham native is trying to regain control.

Twice during the past two years, the mother of four has checked into 
Freedom House, several miles north of the downtown Chapel Hill bars and 
nightclubs.

"It's a safe environment, especially when I'm coming in off the streets," 
Wall said recently. "I like the structure. I like how they get you 
motivated. I need somebody to tell me when to go to bed."

Counselors and women who have endured similar experiences provide support 
to help Freedom House residents. Relapse is all too common, and the 
residents and staff know a celebratory good-bye at the end of a six-month 
treatment term might all too soon be a teary-eyed return.

Wall's first visit to Freedom House was nearly two years ago -- not long 
after she signed over custody of three of her four children to their 
godparents. Her eldest son was with her mother, a recovering alcoholic who 
has since died. "All I know is I wanted to get help, and I wanted to stop 
using," she said. "I was tired of that low-life."

Freedom House, with an operating budget last year of $946,429, allocates 
$110,110 for administrative costs and $829,873 for program services. That 
money keeps 12 beds open in the women's center.

Wall took one of them.

She leaned on the other residents for support, cherished the art and 
jewelry-making classes, started a 12-step recovery program and took part in 
the support group meetings. She thought she was ready to make it in the 
outside world.

But this past August, two days after picking up her two-year chip for 
staying clean of drugs and alcohol, she relapsed. She lost her car and her 
pride. Within three weeks, she was back at Freedom House, asking for 
another chance.

"By having a little bit of the program in my life, I knew then there was a 
better way," she said. "In this program, I see when people come in and get 
their families back and building a home."

She is glad, she says, that her children are not in foster care. One day, 
she dreams, everybody will be under one roof. Until then, she's happy to 
talk with her youngsters on the phone and await a post-Christmas visit 
during which they will open presents under the holiday tree.

"If it had not been for this house, if I had no concept of a halfway house, 
I probably would have died," Wall said. "I would have gone back home and 
started using, and probably ended up dying."
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