DETOX PROGRAM BACK IN EL PASO

An alcohol and drug detox program for the poor will open at the El Paso
Psychiatric Center by summer, providing a permanent home for the service
since the state cut funds for the former detox center in December.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center will run a 15- to 20-bed
program on the third floor of the center next to Thomason Hospital,
regional dean Dr. Manuel de la Rosa said. The program will be funded
largely by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which plans to
announce final plans for the deal later this week, commission spokeswoman
Stephanie Goodman said.

"We've established an extremely important partnership with an organization
with the resources and the physicians," said Texas state Rep. Norma Chavez,
D-El Paso, who helped broker the deal among the commission, Texas Tech and
the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

"El Paso has a detox program in place again," Chavez said.

Last fall, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse pulled funds from
Casa Blanca Therapeutic Communities, the former detox provider, after
finding that the organization violated federal tax laws and misused nearly
$530,000 in state funds. Casa Blanca had run a 40-bed detox center and
provided the bulk of services for indigent patients in the county.

Since then, advocates of substance abuse treatment have lobbied for a new
company to offer detox services to the nearly 900 indigent El Paso
residents who use the program every year. A deal with Southwestern General
Hospital fell through earlier this year when the financially plagued El
Paso hospital closed its inpatient services.

Last Friday, a new coalition of substance abuse treatment providers, police
and mental health advocates asked the West Texas Council to open a detox
center in the city. Members of the El Paso Recovery Coalition said that a
40- to 50-bed treatment program was needed and that another treatment
program for adolescents should be developed. Coalition members did not know
that the state commission was close to signing a detox deal with Texas Tech.

"Texas Tech will have our full support," said Manny Barrios, West Texas
Council executive director.

The council offers substance abuse treatment and education programs. With
Texas Tech running the adult detox program, Barrios' agency would consider
opening an adolescent detox center at its offices at 3210 Dyer, he said.