Pubdate: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 Source: Log Cabin Democrat (AR) Copyright: 2007 The Log Cabin Democrat Contact: http://thecabin.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/548 Author: Daniel Doyle, LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER DRYING OUT THE DRUG PROBLEM How UCA And The Local Courts Propose We Stop Sending Addicts To Treatment Centers In Other Counties University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin indicated in recent e-mails with the media that one of his goals for the school is to build an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility somewhere in Conway off the UCA campus. "We have already met with the Governor's office once to see what kind of funding might be available," said Hardin, who offered few details other than a plan to incorporate into the project a treatment center in Russellville, Freedom House, which has cared for Faulkner County patients. Hardin also said he plans for the project to serve as a hands-on schooling ground, wherever it will be, for UCA's addiction studies majors. "There are many grants available in this area, and of course we would seek legislative funding as well. But this is not something UCA will build by itself," Hardin said. An interview conducted last month with local attorney Frank Shaw prompted the dialogue with Hardin. Shaw takes credit, and gives some to state drug court programs, for UCA's interest in treating substance addiction. EAGLE VS. RABBIT Shaw, who in interviews has called himself Faulkner County's "lone ranger of substance abuse treatment," said last week that for 10 years he "wasn't even able to get to first base" on the proposal of building a rehab center. He said that after trying to sell local institutions on building the county's first substance abuse center for more than a decade, he was surprised after hearing of Hardin's intention to start the project. "Cocaine and methamphetamine are just like a big eagle," Shaw said. "And you're a little rabbit. And when he gets his claws in you, you can't get loose, because it's powdered Satan. Drugs are powdered Satan, and Satan is more powerful than the individual. You've got to have the help of Jesus, in my opinion, to quit. But for others, maybe Jesus is whatever it takes to get straight." WHY WOULDN'T IT HAPPEN? "I have worked at this relentlessly, and we still don't have any beds for substance addicts within 30 miles," Shaw said. "I can evidence that with conversations I've had with Conway Regional Medical Center. I've asked them to consider a facility to treat people, but if you go to Conway Regional with a drug overdose, they don't have any place to treat you. They stabilize you and send you somewhere else. "The truth is we probably need several facilities: A faith-based one run by all the big churches, a secular one run by the university, and a hospital-based one if we can ever get decent health care for poor people. The churches have expressed interest in it, but nobody's moving, and the reason is because it is class-based. Nobody's interested in helping people they perceive to be criminals or dope addicts, drugheads, alcoholics, when actually the churches should be working those fields harder than anywhere. "Because we have a tremendous mission field right here in town. You don't have to send your money to Kenya. You can send it to Conway, because there are plenty of unsaved people here who need your help. We're overlooking them. There's nothing wrong with helping people around the world, but I understand that kindness should start at your doorstep." THE COURTS Circuit Judge Ed Clawson, who presides over Faulkner County Drug Court, said in an interview this month that he can remember numerous debates over treatment facilities in Conway, but gentrification concerns shot down concrete plans to build. After the advent of drug courts in Arkansas, Clawson said, the courts system became an avenue of argument for a local facility project. "In Arkansas over the last nine or 10 years, beginning up in Fayetteville we've had the drug court programs. They have spread and are in almost every district in the state now," Clawson said. "It's a program for treatment, and the way we do it here is, a defendant is on probation and he has pled guilty, but in the course of probation they're on a very intensely supervised and monitored treatment program, and if they complete the program we clear the offense from their record. We've got that. "What we don't have is an in-house long-or short-term rehab facility. Drug court is an outpatient thing. They have to attend it regularly, and it relies heavily on community resources like (Alcoholics Anonymous) and (Narcotics Anonymous). There is a counseling segment of it and a segment of it handled by the Department of Community Corrections here. In fact, the staff for drug court is provided by the DCC. We don't contract out private entities for that. "The legislature recently approved a system where various agencies across the state like Freedom House can contract and provide care to the drug court people or the DCC, but we still don't have anything like Freedom House in Conway. The closest thing is in Little Rock. If we had something, there are times when people in drug court who need 30,60, 90 days of some sort of in-house lock-down treatment for drying out, and they can't get it locally. "There are usually about 25 beds at these places, and when you have to wait on a bed somewhere else, maybe by the time you've waited, the crisis has passed. Having a facility here would be a nice thing to have available for any offender, whether they're in drug court or not, but for any offender who's on probation." THE ACADEMIC ANGLE Lisa Ray, a former DCC officer and drug court worker, is the coordinator for UCA's bachelor of science in addiction studies project, which has existed for three years. The program trains students to be substance abuse prevention specialists or substance abuse counselors. Ray says substance abuse has become an illness that requires treatment in a residential setting, "where somebody will stay for 30-45 days and do nothing but concentrate on recovery management and getting a handle on the disease." "Recovery management," Ray said, is preferable to "treatment," since according to Ray, chemical abuse is akin to diabetes, asthma or high blood pressure in that its sufferers may never again know life without the disease playing as a personal obstacle. "Chemical dependency is a chronic disease," Ray said. "Once you've got it, you typically have it for the rest of your life, and what patients need to do is learn to manage it. You don't go to substance abuse treatment and get cured. Just like you don't go to the doctor and get cured of diabetes or asthma. You go to the doctor and you're taught how to manage those conditions. "What happens in a treatment environment, is the patient is given the proper tools to manage the disease. Sometimes they're cognitive tools that help in changing the way you think. Sometimes if there's a co-occurring disorder, medication might be appropriate. There are lots of different things that can be done to help the client manage their condition, and sometimes they need a more structured environment than just being at home and coming to group two or three times a week at drug court." "I can tell you this," Ray said earlier this month, before Hardin announced the university's plans: "That if such a facility opened up, where our majors could get that kind of hands-on experience while at the same time patients are getting the treatment they need, I would be thrilled." THE REALITY Shaw said week, "Right now, I'll take anything, because anything's a start. We have nothing nothing as it is. "We have aught, and it ought to be the most embarrasing thing for the city of Conway, that we don't have any beds to treat sick people. We should be embarrassed. We hold ourselves out to be some kind of oasis for Arkansas, and we are. But in this one area of abuse treatment we are totally lacking. We have our head in the sand and we're only just now talking about the reality of the problem." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart