TASK FORCE CALLS FOR TREATMENT

Panel Urges More Options To Assist Substance Abusers

Delaware's drug abusers need more and better treatment options and
insurance coverage, a General Assembly task force said Wednesday.

The task force called for laws requiring more options for treating - not
just punishing - drug users charged with crimes. State officials estimate
that 75 percent of people in state prisons have a history of substance abuse.

The group was set up last year to recommend improvements to a system that
sometimes fails drug users, said Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D- Wilmington
East. The task force was led by Henry and Wendell Howell of the Addictions
Coalition of Delaware.

The report does not detail how much all the recommendations would cost or
say where the money to pay for them would come from.

After a Wednesday hearing on the report in Dover, Henry said some programs
might be paid for with tobacco settlement money or by shifting money from
other programs in the Department of Health and Social Services.

About 8,000 people received publicly funded substance abuse treatment last
year. But 25,000 people may have needed help and not obtained it because
they did not ask for help or were on a treatment program waiting list,
state officials said.

The report calls for a new residential treatment program for adults that
would cost about $35,000 per patient per year. Between 50 and 100
additional beds are needed in Delaware for substance abuse treatment, the
report said.

The state has about 80 beds in publicly funded residential substance- abuse
programs. They generally all have waiting lists, said Jack Kemp, director
of state substance abuse services.

Few of those beds are for extended treatment that can last months, he said.
Health officials said longer stays can be more effective for some patients.

Pat Maichle of Middletown said the insurance coverage recommendations are
important.

Maichle's son has undergone treatment for a heroin addiction and she paid
$5,000 for a 28-day program in Maryland.

"Most parents can't do that more than once, and usually 28 days isn't
enough," she said.

The task force called for providing insurance coverage for substance abuse
treatment, which is something Delaware lawmakers have supported in
principle. Legislators have not set aside money to cover such services for
state employees.

The task force recommends establishing an ombudsman group to help the
insurance commissioner ensure substance abuse treatment is being covered by
insurers, Henry said.

"We'd love to see the coverage," said Richard Heffron, of the Delaware
State Chamber of Commerce. But small businesses could be hit hard by the
cost of such a plan, he said.

"This is a bad year to be talking about it. Health-care costs generally
have just skyrocketed," he said.

Henry said substance abuse is "just like the diseases of hypertension and
diabetes" and must be treated as such.

The lack of treatment options in Delaware means some substance abusers end
up in prison when they really need treatment, officials said.

Kemp said some of the state-funded treatment beds are occupied by people
who have committed crimes, but often there isn't space to hold all the
people needing such services.

That's why many people end up in prison when the primary problem they're
facing is drug addiction, Superior Court Judge Richard S. Gebelein has said.

Henry said Wednesday she has introduced five bills to give judges leeway in
sentencing criminals with drug abuse problems, and to require more
community-based treatment options for offenders. The bills would:

* Allow judges to send prisoners through a work-release or halfway- house
treatment program before their release.

* Relax the law revoking driving privileges for people convicted of drug
offenses so they could work and be less likely to commit another crime.

* Give some low-level drug traffickers the chance to serve part of their
sentence in a drug treatment program.

* Require people arrested for crimes such as prostitution or shoplifting to
be tested for drugs. Those who test positive could enter a treatment
program. The bill proposes a pilot program to test the concept in a few
small jurisdictions.