RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT OPTIONS DON'T MEET GROWING NEED

Lane County has ample outpatient treatment for young criminals hooked on
drugs and alcohol, but it's another story for the ones who need long-term
residential treatment.

They stand in line for six months to a year for a spot in one of 18
residential beds available for juvenile offenders.

Twenty boys are on a waiting list for the 14 beds at Pathways, a
residential center operated by Looking Glass Youth and Family Services. The
average treatment period is six months, Program Director Sylvia Roehnelt said.

The nonprofit center, newly built on the John Serbu Youth Campus in Eugene,
has 21 beds, but the funding to use only 14. The program gets general fund
money through the Lane County Department of Youth Services.

For delinquent girls who use drugs, Willamette Family Treatment Services
has four residential treatment beds, all that are available for them in
Lane County.

"We've really been struggling to get funding for girls' beds," said
Willamette Family's Executive Director Hillary Wylie. "The state did not
fund us, even though they say all this stuff about the importance of
children. They said it wasn't high enough priority."

Money for Willamette Family's four beds is only temporary. It comes from a
three-year, $3 million federal grant awarded to the county. The grant, now
in its second year, also pays for the RAP Court.

"We have many, many more youths in our community who need the services, and
we don't have the beds," Roehnelt said.

Families that have good health insurance or money to spend can place their
addicted children in private residential treatment programs. But uninsured
and low-income families must depend on publicly funded residential services
- - available only to kids charged with a crime in juvenile court.

The Oregon Health Plan pays for low-income and uninsured youths to get
outpatient drug and alcohol treatment, so that's less of a problem.

But residential treatment is especially important for some kids who need to
escape the peer pressure of living on the streets or in homes where others
use drugs and alcohol, advocates say.

In Oregon, residential treatment programs for young criminals typically
operate with a blend of county general fund money, special tax levy
revenues, and state and federal grant money.

The Oregon Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs oversees contracts
that dole out state and federal money to local agencies for drug education,
prevention and treatment.

Currently, Lane County gets no money from the state office for residential
treatment beds for young offenders.

The statewide program budget for the current biennium is $100.3 million, an
increase of $21 million over the 1997-99 budget and $35 million more than
the 1995-97 budget, according to state budget figures.

The number of residential treatment beds for juvenile offenders has held
steady at around 60 beds statewide since 1995, said office Planning Manager
Gwen Grams. The agency is attempting to stretch treatment money by
providing addicts with housing so they can live in a drug-free environment
while undergoing outpatient treatment, she said.

"We're a progressive state in that kids can get outpatient treatment,"
Roehnelt said. "With residential treatment, you need a facility designed
for 24-hour supervision, seven days a week. It's expensive. But in the long
run, for the taxpayer, it's cheaper than having these kids keep using drugs
and doing crime."