Tag Archives: police

Detox and done, but taxpayers still pay

I’ve been trying to assist a friend who wants and needs help with recovery from addiction. My friend doesn’t have the benefit of good health insurance. Few long-term addicts do. Serious addiction often leads to unemployment, and that means no insurance. Without insurance, treatment options are limited to local and state programs.

Our county had a good treatment center which offered detox, outpatient, and inpatient services. The center stayed full, with a waiting list, from the day it opened, but still, it was good treatment, and people got help there. But there were issues with Bridgeway, the operator contracted to provide services, and the state suspended admissions in August. The county is transitioning to a new provider, DayMark, but new patients won’t be admitted until at least late November. So that’s four months with no county substance abuse treatment.

Uninsured/under-insured Guilford County residents in need of substance abuse treatment can go to ARCA in Winston, RTS in Burlington or ADATC in Butner for detox and crisis stabilization. But those services are limited to 14 days. While that’s helpful in some cases, in many cases, it’s like sticking a bandaid on a seriously injured car crash victim and dumping them back into the middle of the interstate. Those in recovery from cocaine addiction, for example, often need significantly more residential treatment. They need to be in a safe, structured environment while their brains begin to heal. And at just 14 days’ clean time, a crack addict’s brain looks like someone turned the lights out.

Much is said about “community-based treatment,” which means non-residential (not in a facility), but in reality, it sounds a lot better than it often works. “Best practices” and “client-centered therapy” are also important parts of good treatment. But the substance abuse treatment available locally to alcoholics and addicts who don’t have good health insurance coverage doesn’t always measure up to those terms.

I’m a realist. I know that the biggest reason why we don’t have the needed treatment is because there’s not enough money to pay for it. Local and state treatment programs are paid for primarily with tax dollars. There’s always been a shortage of treatment beds and treatment options. And the current economy has no doubt worsened the situation. But I also know the cost of addiction that most taxpayers don’t see or think about. It’s “pay me now or pay me later.” When treatment-ready alcoholics and addicts can’t get the help they need, and they continue in their addictions, taxpayers still end up paying for it.

People who can’t access needed treatment services often continue to cycle through emergency rooms (the most expensive form of healthcare) and detox programs. That costs taxpayers money. Active alcoholics and addicts who are on disability may use government benefits, such as SSDI or SSI checks, food stamps or utility vouchers to buy alcohol and drugs. Taxpayers pay for that. Police officers, jailers and judges can tell you about the correlation between addiction and crime. Again, taxpayers pay.

The cost of the destruction of lives — both the addicts’ and their friends and families — cannot be measured.  Alcoholics, addicts, and their friends and families lose time from work dealing with crises. Alcoholics, addicts, and their friends and families deal with mental and physical health issues — some which contribute to the alcoholism and addiction, and some resulting from it. Families break up and relationships end because of alcoholism and addiction. Single-parent families are at a greater risk of poverty and are more likely to receive government assistance. All of this adds up to more taxpayers dollars.

There’s much stigma, misinformation and mythology attached to alcoholism and addiction. This probably contributes to the lack of advocacy for increasing treatment options. But if we were to really look at the bottom line, we’d see that “detox and done” isn’t really serving anyone.

It’s easy to appeal to compassion and make an emotional case for providing treatment for alcoholics and addicts who are ready to do the next thing. But the pragmatic case is just as compelling, if not more so. Currently, adequate treatment is not available because our community can’t afford to provide it. But the truth is that taxpayers are already paying (and likely paying more) for not providing adequate treatment services, which raises the obvious question: Can we really afford not to provide it?

 

Local homeless count numbers officially released: “Homelessness on rise”

Totals for the 2010 Guilford County homeless count (part of the annual, nationwide HUD count) were reported to the state and available on the web as of March 12th, as reported here at ChosenFast.com. Those numbers were officially released to the media today:

howmanyOn any given night, 1,064 people find themselves without permanent shelter in Guilford County, new data shows.

The annual “point-in-time” count of the homeless Jan. 27 found that at least that many people were living on the street, in shelters or in transitional housing, according to a report released today by Partners Ending Homelessness.

The annual count is a snapshot of homelessness in the county and officials caution it is not a complete picture of the situation. People often decline to take the voluntary survey and others may not be found during the 24-hour period that it takes place.

In 2009, the point-in-time count found 1,052 people experiencing homelessness in Guilford County.

This year’s count of the homeless also showed:

  • a 55 percent increase in the number of military veterans
  • a 31 percent increase in the number of domestic violence victims; and
  • an 8 percent increase in the number of children

– from ‘Snapshot’ survey shows homelessness on rise : News-Record.com

My experience with our StreetWatch team, as well as observations at shelter and meal locations, and conversations with police officers and homeless people, tell me that homelessness is increasing in our city and county, as it is across the nation. Counting homeless people is a notoriously difficult, and ultimately impossible, task. So I tend to go by trends, based on who we see and who we serve.

Last week, I spoke with Jehan Benton-Clark, director of Partners Ending Homelessness (PEH), about this year’s homeless count totals. We discussed the inherent limitations of a one-day homeless count, and other available data from local homeless service providers which presents a broader picture of the increasing homeless population in our area. I anticipate a more detailed public report from PEH.

“In the city’s path” — Homeless move for Greenway

image credit: News-Record.com/Nelson Kepley

image credit: News-Record.com/Nelson Kepley

In the city’s path
Saturday, March 6, 2010
By Lorraine Ahearn

GREENSBORO – Two paths converged in a not-so-distant wood this week: the $26 million Downtown Greenway, and a longtime homeless “tent city” in its way.

Served notice that heavy equipment will soon be brought in for soil sampling, five homeless men and a woman retreated to an adjoining section of woods near the Freeman Mill Road overpass at Spring Garden Street, according to police and Action Greensboro, the nonprofit project manager.

“They told us we had to go — tents and everything,” said Keith Owens, 45, an unemployed equipment operator who has lived at the camp for a year. “They did give us a little bit of warning. Anybody dreads moving. It’s just a little harder out here.”

» Keep reading “In the city’s path” at News-Record.com

Good article by Lorraine Ahearn in the News & Record, about our friends at the Freeman Mill homeless camps moving the largest camp to make way for the next section of the downtown Greenway.

There’s been good cooperation between the homeless camp residents, property owner Elliott Mitchell, StreetWatch, the Greensboro Police Department, the City of Greensboro, and Action Greensboro in strategizing solutions for the homeless people who’ve been displaced by the Greenway. The Greensboro Housing Coalition is helping some of them move into permanent housing using HUD vouchers. I look forward to eventually walking the Greenway with my friends who’ve lived in its path. And hopefully, going to visit them in their homes, not their tents.