S. JERSEY STILL WITHOUT INPATIENT DRUG CENTER

For more than two years, people who care for and about teenagers addicted
to drugs have been waiting for the state to fulfill a promise to open an
inpatient treatment facility in South Jersey.

Parents, health providers and agencies interested in hosting the treatment
facility are at turns frustrated and bewildered by what hasn't happened.

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the agency charged
with getting the treatment center off the ground, will say only that it is
in favor of more treatment options for adolescents in South Jersey.

Spokeswoman Laura Otterbourg declined to go into specifics about the status
of the treatment facility now that James E. McGreevey is governor. The
facility was promised during the administration of former Gov. Christie
Whitman. Otterbourg would not say if a site had been chosen or how long it
might take before the proposed center would open for business.

This much is clear, however: The need still exists for intensive inpatient
care for young people in the grips of marijuana, heroin, alcohol and other
addictions.

"There really are four inpatient beds in South Jersey. Those are, of
course, filled up all the time," said Dr. Douglas Leonard, an assistant
clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

Those few beds, designated by various hospitals and clinics for
drug-addicted patients, are not nearly enough.

"There's just a horrible, horrible problem with addiction in South Jersey,"
Leonard said.

Maureen McCarthy of Berlin Borough knows that too well. She has been trying
to get her son, Ken Plummer, into an inpatient treatment facility to treat
his addiction to marijuana and other drugs. She calls the last three weeks
" the most frustrating, hellish experience of my life."

"I'm on a waiting list for everywhere right now," she said.

Though Plummer, 16, was offered a spot in a facility in North Jersey last
week, McCarthy's health insurance wouldn' t cover it. She can't afford $300
a day out of pocket for the anticipated 45 days of care.

For now, Plummer, is getting outpatient care at Genesis Counseling Center
in Collingswood.

"I've seen him really, really try," said McCarthy, who is also getting help
from Genesis counselors to find an inpatient bed. "But all of us realize
that he needs inpatient."

In April 2000, then-Health and Senior Services Commissioner Christine Grant
announced $2 million for a 75- bed residential treatment facility for the
southern end of the state. It was a milestone since South Jersey has none.
Several sites were considered, including in Camden and Moorestown. The
treatment facility was supposed to be open by 2001.

People like Susan Foose are still waiting. Foose, coordinator of
Parent-to-Parent Coalition in Marlton, is credited with bringing the issue
to the forefront during a 1998 town hall meeting.

Foose, whose son died of a drug overdose in 1997, said some young people
with drug addictions need the kind of intensive treatment that only
inpatient care can provide.

"To keep recycling people with this disease and wondering why the relapse
rate is so high - it just doesn't make sense anymore," Foose said.

A state health department report released last summer said more than 9,400
adolescents in New Jersey cannot access treatment - inpatient or outpatient
- - because there are too few providers. That amounts to 65 percent of
addicted youngsters who aren't getting the treatment they need.

Community-based treatment is preferred, according to a a federal study,
because it reduces drug and alcohol use, improves school performance and
lowers criminal activity. The federal report published last year in the
Archives of General Psychiatry looked at 90-day residential programs,
short-term inpatient care (about 21 days) and outpatient therapy.

"The peer group and the people, places and things are really critical to
having somebody remain addicted," Leonard said. Separating addicts from
those influences "goes a very long way to getting them to see more clearly.
It is not an easy task. It is not a part-time task," he said.

Those who cannot find inpatient care may opt for outpatient facilities.

"We do an exceptional amount of intensive, outpatient programming," said
Gabe Guerrieri, Genesis' executive director. "Our groups are very large.

"In Camden County just recently Seabrook (House) closed its outpatient
services so Genesis had to take on so many more kids and their parents," he
said.

Guerrieri, too, is perplexed that inpatient beds haven't come to South
Jersey yet. "I don't think anybody knows what' s happening. It's been
tossed and tossed around."

Dr. Donald Krachman, vice president of physician services and executive
director at Virtua Health Camden, had been negotiating with health
department officials to set up the treatment facility on part of its campus
for two years.

Krachman said Virtua put every option on the table: buy, rent, lease,
lease-purchase. "You name it, we tried it," Krachman said.

The negotiations stalled.

Moorestown officials figured they were out of the running after July, which
was the last time they heard from state officials. Town Manager Jack Terry
said the site, the former Parkside Lodge, is under contract for another use
now.

Officials in Washington Township, Gloucester County, are more hopeful.
They, too, have spoken with state officials about a location in the
township that would house a 64-bed facility.

"I want to think positive. I hope it happens this year," said Thomas
Mazzola, director of the Washington Township Family and Community Services,
Municipal Alliance Program.

"Our group has been meeting for 5 1/2 years. We've been promised that there
was going to be a facility in South Jersey for 5 1/2 years," Mazzola said,
citing verbal commitments that predate the health department's most recent
announced plans.

He said drug abuse, particularly heroin use, is the worst his office has
seen in at least 14 years. He also worries that the new drug court program
in Gloucester County, which gives nonviolent offenders the option of
seeking inpatient treatment over jail time, will further tax the
health-care system.

Moreover, even when drug abusers and their families find treatment they
sometimes must wrangle with insurance companies to pay for it.

"It's a very difficult field to be in and it's very frustrating. You have
more failures than you have successes," Mazzola said. The state has
provided $2.57 million above the usual substance-abuse funding allocated
for South Jersey residents until more facilities, including an inpatient
one, can open. The money is welcome but doesn't get to the root of the
issue, providers say.

"There's no reason in the world why South Jersey should not have these new
facilities. I am frustrated with the previous administration ... and
disappointed," said state Sen. John Matheussen, R-Gloucester, who confirmed
the year-plus negotiations between the state and officials in South Jersey.

"At the same time, I'm also hopeful that this administration can and will
get it done," he said. "This is something that the people of South Jersey
absolutely, positively need."

Both Matheussen and Parent-to-Parent say they plan to meet with the new
health commissioner, Clifton R. Lacy, this month.

"As concerned citizens and grieving moms and struggling parents, we're very
grateful that the door is still open," said Foose of Parent-to-Parent. "I'm
an optimistic person. I think eventually (the treatment facility) will happen."

That help could be the answer for parents who are going through the same
ordeal Jeanette Gerlack has experienced.

The mother from Salem County said she learned her 19-year-old daughter was
using heroin three years ago. Since then, the young woman has been in at
least five inpatient institutions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Most were
a two-hour drive from home.

"Trying to get into these facilities is impossible," said Gerlack, whose
daughter has been clean for three months. "It's very frustrating. When
you're going through this, you have a window of opportunity. She'd ask for
help one day and the next day she didn't want it."

Having easily accessible treatment at the time her daughter needed it could
have saved a lot of heartache, Gerlack said.

In addition, her family spent $22,000 for expenses an insurer would not
cover during her daughter's first year of treatment. At one facility, the
insurer covered only outpatient care. But because her daughter hadn't
stayed clean, the facility would only treat her on an inpatient basis.

"The funding is not there. The facilities are not there when the funding
is," she said. "It's just a difficult thing."