Pubdate: Wed, 07 May 2003
Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
Copyright: 2003 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: Claudia Assis

PLEA MADE TO REVIVE INPATIENT REHAB UNIT

DURHAM -- As Howard Clement spoke up during a Durham County Commissioners' 
meeting Monday, he warned he wasn't there as a 20-year City Council veteran.

That morning he was wearing just one hat. The hat of a father who has 
nearly lost his daughter to drug addiction, he said.

More than 50 people filled the commissioners' room to support plans to 
revive an inpatient substance abuse treatment program at Oakleigh, a Durham 
Regional Hospital building that long housed a detox program but closed its 
doors two years ago.

Clement told commissioners and the audience that his daughter, Marcella 
Clement, recently spent 57 days in jail for drug-related behavior.

"Since January, 12, 2003, we've had to pay $200 a day to the state of New 
Jersey for my daughter's treatment," he said. "Two hundred dollars a day 
that could be easily spent in Durham, City of Medicine."

Luckily, he can afford such expensive treatment, he said, but for many 
Durham parents such inpatient treatment is out of reach.

The County Commissioners voted unanimously to ask Duke University to 
support a new program at Oakleigh. Commissioner Phil Cousin volunteered to 
serve as a liaison between the group, mostly Durham pastors, and Duke 
University, which through its lease of Durham Regional Hospital controls 
the building.

Several pastors began pushing for an inpatient program at Oakleigh last 
year. The program would not require conversion to any religious 
denomination and would include classes on job and interpersonal skills and 
personal development.

Oakleigh, which is adjacent to Durham Regional, was hailed as a 
state-of-the art facility when it opened in 1985. More than 10,000 came to 
Oakleigh for a 28-day treatment before it closed.

The one-story, 24-bed center has been vacant for two years, but during the 
December ice storm served as a county special-needs shelter. It housed 40 
to 50 people for a couple of days, Durham Regional officials have said. A 
market-rate lease would range from $390,000 to $450,000 a year.

The group has contacted several community agencies to secure support, said 
Thomas "Bernie" Bass Jr., a Clayton pastor and executive director of the 
Durham Community House of Recovery, a halfway house for addicted women.

"It is time for this community to put the money where the mouth is and quit 
talking about doing something and do something," he said.

A rehab program is "much needed" in Durham, said Police Chief Steve 
Chalmers. Recently, police arrested a person charged with about 150 
burglaries, committed in a 45-day spree, and found that drug addiction had 
been the driving force behind the crimes, he said.

According to the Rev. William-Hazel Height, the Greater St. Paul Missionary 
Baptist Church senior pastor who is spearheading the push to reopen 
Oakleigh, the building is not the group's only option. But since it has 
housed a drug rehab program in the past, it is the group's preference, he said.

The idea is to have private companies, churches, other nonprofits and grant 
money fund the initiative, he said. A final budget wasn't available Monday.

According to Durham-based Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina, 22,000 
people, or slightly less than 10 percent of Durham County population, 
suffered from addiction in 2000.

In 2001, the Durham Center, the county agency overseeing mental health, 
learning disability and substance abuse programs, faced a $1.4 million 
budget shortfall. To tighten its belt, the Durham Center pulled its clients 
out of Oakleigh, among other measures.

Without county-subsidized clients, Oakleigh closed within weeks. At the 
time the county pulled out of Oakleigh in April 2001, the program cost 
about $551,000 per year.

Drug prevention is one of the county's priorities, Commissioners Chairwoman 
Ellen Reckhow told the group. MaryAnn E. Black, Duke University's director 
of community affairs and a former county commissioner, had intended to be 
at the meeting but had a conflict of schedule, she said. Black relayed to 
her that Duke is interested in working with the group, Reckhow said.

In other business Monday:

- -- The County Commissioners set a May 27 public hearing on the 2003-04 
budget. County Manager Mike Ruffin will present his budget recommendation 
Monday, with commissioners scheduling several meetings this month to likely 
pare down the spending plan. Last year, commissioners approved a $497 
million budget, raising the countywide tax rate by 2.4 cents, or 3.3 percent.

- -- A month after more than 20 people came to a meeting to support extending 
health and dental benefits to homosexual and heterosexual partners of 
county employees, three other people spoke in support of the measure.

According to Reckhow, the issue is "under study" and county employees are 
researching whether health insurance costs would rise. The county also 
plans on a survey of its employees to gauge employee interest in receiving 
benefits, she said.

Also last month, supporters of domestic-partner benefits turned in a 
petition signed by 80 Durham attorneys. The attorneys challenged County 
Attorney Chuck Kitchen's legal opinion, which advised against providing the 
health benefits, and called for a second legal opinion.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex