CENTER STRIVES TO BE ADDICTS' TURNING POINT

Facility Seeking Grant To Expand

Hooked on methamphetamine, Deborah Vest found herself in a downward spiral.
Her husband had died in late 2002. Shortly afterward, her 11-year-old
daughter was removed from her home in New Washington.

"I hated me and everything about me," said Vest, 35, recalling the dark
days that eventually led to a three-week stay in the Clark County Jail.

Vest is now recovering from her meth addiction at the Turning Point Center,
the only residential drug-treatment facility of its kind in this part of
Southern Indiana. She attends group meetings, sleeps in a dorm and watches
videos that describe meth's destructive effect on the human brain.

Supporters of Turning Point think they can reach even more people with the
help of a federal grant that would pay for a $500,000 expansion and
renovation of the facility, which is at 1060 Sharon Drive in Jeffersonville.

The effort is still in the early stages, but LifeSpring Inc., the nonprofit
organization that runs Turning Point, has landed a $30,000 planning grant
for the expansion. If a larger federal grant is approved later this year,
it would allow new buildings to be constructed for outpatient programs.

Staff members who now work in a trailer could move into the main building,
and a separate "dual-diagnosis" program focusing on drugs and mental
illness could move to Sharon Drive from its present site near Clark
Memorial Hospital.

The proposed changes would help meet a growing demand for the center's
services, said Terry Stawar, president of LifeSpring.

Stawar said the waiting list for some residential programs at Turning Point
is three to four weeks.

"We are full almost all the time," he said. "It's really unfortunate."

Turning Point mainly serves indigent people and the working poor.
LifeSpring's principal service area is Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Scott,
Washington and Jefferson counties.

The proposed expansion won't add beds, but Stawar said the project would
make the facility more efficient and less cramped.

The main building on Sharon Drive was previously a restaurant and a
nightclub. It has been in its present use since 1989. The last major
renovation -- of the dormitory area -- was five years ago.

Stawar said the changes will allow the staff to do a better job of linking
graduates of the residential program with outpatient services. And he said
the addition of the dual-diagnosis program would make it easier to work
with drug addicts who also are mentally ill.

Jim Leggett, clinical manager at Turning Point, said demand for programs
frequently outpaces available resources. The center's funding is a mix of
state and federal funds, and patients are charged a fee based on a sliding
scale. Patients arrive with a variety of addictions, Leggett said,
including meth, prescription painkillers, alcohol and cocaine.

Vest said that she left the center on her first day there because she was
afraid of trying to deal with her problems, then called seven days in a row
before being accepted back into the residential program.

Now entering her third week in the dorm, Vest said she doesn't know where
she would be without the therapists, physicians and other patients with
whom she has shared her story.

In the beginning, she said, there were tears and "lots of emotions" as she
faced suppressed feelings about her drug use. But she said she is now on a
path to recovery, and to reclaiming her life and family.

"There's so many people who need help out there," she said. "I'm going to
take it one day at a time."