TREATMENT CENTER FACES BUDGET CUTS

* Last year, 246 teen-agers completed Comtrea's residential program,
staying between 30 and 60 days.

For Kim McCartney, 16, a year in residential drug treatment has been
productive: She recently turned down a friend's offer of crystal meth on a
visit to her home in St. Charles from Comprehensive Treatment Inc.'s De
Soto facility.

"It was hard, but I said no," said Kim, who spent a month at Comtrea after
an 11-month stay at another facility to confront her addiction to
methamphetamine. "It made me feel like I have accomplished something."

Comtrea's Comprehensive Substance Treatment and Rehabilitation may lose
funding and be forced to stop taking clients without insurance or Medicaid
if Gov. Bob Holden approves a budget with the proposed $5 million reduction
in mental-health spending, says Stephen Huss, Comtrea's president. If the
state cuts the budget from $701,724,091 to $694,104,240, Comtrea will lose
$800,000 of its annual $9.5 million spending plan, Huss says.

Last year, 246 teen-agers completed Comtrea's residential program and
stayed between 30 and 60 days in its cluster of wooden houses in De Soto,
says Ghada Sultani-Hoffman, vice president for Comtrea's youth services.
Participants take a bus to Comtrea's Arnold office each day for group and
individual counseling and two hours of school work.

Comtrea also runs an outpatient version of CSTAR, which served 846 people
last year, Sultani-Hoffman says. In addition CSTAR staff conducted 240
classroom presentations about substance abuse. And five CSTAR counselors
work in the county's school districts.

"If these programs are cut, it will have a devastating effect on the
community," Sultani-Hoffman said. "I am an eternal optimist, but I can say
that I am frightened about it." She said the reduction was coming at a bad
time because the demand for substance-abuse treatment among teen-agers had
increased in the past few years. In 2000, 40 more patients checked into the
residential program than in 1999.

"I already have to refer people out," Sultani-Hoffman said. "So we can use
more money, not less."

The reasons why

Most teens in CSTAR have been addicted to marijuana, says Phyllis Mast, the
program's clinical director. Some have used cocaine, methamphetamine and
ecstasy, she says. Often, through counseling, patients can figure out why
they turned to drugs, Mast says.

"Many of these kids use drugs to self-medicate," she said. "If we can deal
with underlying issues, we can help kids be clean."

Eva Barton, 15, a student at Seckman High School, said that Comtrea had
helped her discover that depression had led her to smoke marijuana but that
now she didn't need the drug because she had made changes in her life. She
said Comtrea had helped her make a plan to live with her grandparents
instead of her mother. And Comtrea employees help her with school work.
Since January she has passed all of her drug tests.

"Every time I got mad, I used drugs," she said. "Now I don't even think
about doing drugs because I have a future ahead of me."

Kim McCartney also said counselors had helped her with more than her drug
addiction. They have taught her how to better express emotions.

"Once I cursed out a counselor and she just sat there," she said. "She
understood that I needed to vent. But now I have more coping skills for
managing anger and not doing drugs. If I couldn't come to a place like this
I would still be suffering and doing drugs to make me feel better."

Results by teamwork

In many cases, Comtrea social workers and counselors collaborate with one
another and with the patient's family members.

One 40-year-old Jefferson County mother said this teamwork had made Comtrea
a successful mechanism to improve life not only for her 12-year-old
schizophrenic daughter, but also for herself and her two other children.
She and her three children have been receiving counseling at Comtrea for
the past two years. Because their insurance company didn't cover all of
their mental-health expenses, this mother, who wants to remain anonymous,
relies on state money to pay for counseling at Comtrea.

A few months ago, social workers at Comtrea helped transfer her
schizophrenic daughter into a mental hospital. Comtrea's help was necessary
because the hospital required referrals for patients. And counselors have
helped the two other children deal with their sister's hospitalization.

"We needed this guidance because doctors only help my daughter," she said.
"I was worried about how everything affected my other kids. (Comtrea) has
helped put things in perspective for them, because their sister can be very
violent."

Katie Hynes, a support worker who may lose her job if the money is not
restored to the mental-health budget, says it takes a lot of creativity and
teamwork to help entire families.

"Sometimes if a child is getting services, the parent also needs someone to
talk to," she said. "We do anything that crosses our minds to help our
clients."

One of Hynes' clients is a Jefferson County mother who three years ago
escaped with her children from an abusive husband.

"I have so many people helping me that I can't remember what their titles
are," said this mother, who does not want her name used because her former
husband is still a threat to her life. "And I can see that my children are
getting better."

Kim McCartney said she knew she was better when she refused the recent
offer of meth. This week she will go home to stay and she says she will
leave Comtrea with more self-esteem. She will continue studying for her
high-school equivalency exam and perhaps begin college in the fall.

"I'm scared because it's been so long since I lived at home," she said.
"But I have a feeling that now I can do it."