DRUG PROGRAMS CONCERNED ABOUT STATE BUDGET CUTS

FW Detox Center Was Forced To Close More Than A Week

FORT WORTH - When Danny Sprabary encountered an alcoholic man shaking from
seizures on the steps of the Billy Gregory Detox Center recently, his first
instinct was to admit the man to the East Fort Worth center.

Instead, Mr. Sprabary, himself a recovering addict, handed the man some bus
tokens and sent him to John Peter Smith Hospital. Billy Gregory was closed
for more than a week this month for the first time in its 25-year history
because of unexpected budget cuts from the Texas Council on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse.

"It was really tough for us to cut so much from our budget and close those
doors," said Mr. Sprabary, a former Billy Gregory client and now the
center's operations director. "It was like a death for this whole place."

A pledge of money last week by the Tarrant County Commissioners Court and a
financing reversal by TCADA officials have allowed the clinic to reopen.
However, longtime staff members say the roller-coaster budget problems with
the state agency have them concerned about the center's future.

"I don't recall ever being in such a whirlwind in my entire career," said
Mary Phillips-Kalvitz, Billy Gregory's program manager. "People are saying,
'Aren't you glad to have the money back from TCADA?' And all I can think
about is, how can I not be afraid when I know that the rug can be pulled
out at any second?

"We're very pleased that this is where we stand now, but we also know that
it's not over yet."

Billy Gregory - a 12-bed detoxication facility that serves more than 500
medically indigent patients in an 11-county area - is one of several
substance-abuse providers in Tarrant County forced to cut staff and reduce
programs after a $27.9 million budget error by TCADA this year.

Local agencies that contract with TCADA had their budgets trimmed by as
much as 25 percent, officials said. Since late December, when word of the
shortfall began to trickle out of Austin, regional providers for 19 area
counties began to fear for their future.

"The providers spent at a higher rate than we anticipated and,
unfortunately, we didn't catch on to this trend quickly enough," said
Stephanie Goodman, a TCADA spokeswoman. "It was a budget error."

Tarrant County Mental Health-Mental Retardation Services learned several
weeks ago that its $1.92 million TCADA contract would be cut by $600,000.
More than half of that money was restored last week, but providers in the
Dallas area will suffer as a result.

The Dallas-based State of Texas Access Reform, or NorthSTAR, will be
initially cut by $522,837 - with $200,000 more to be cut next year based on
TCADA'S future lowered financial commitment. The pilot program, which is
less than a year old, provides people in a seven-county region with
substance-abuse and mental-health programs through two private companies.

Initially, NorthSTAR officials were told that their program would not be
affected, but now they are considering ways to absorb the
half-million-dollar shortfall.

"We're very concerned because this was not expected," said Bob Waters,
executive director of NorthSTAR, who added that the provider will meet with
state MHMR officials this week to discuss the issue. "This adds more
pressure to make this program work. We have some difficult choices to make."

Ms. Goodman said that initially TCADA officials had hoped to spare
NorthSTAR any cuts, but other programs in the region were affected too
severely by the budget shortfall.

TCADA has suggested that NorthSTAR officials start limiting their
eligibility to patients at or below the poverty level to help ease the
budget cuts. Currently, there are no income requirements for patients.

"Holding NorthSTAR harmless would have had too great an impact on the other
programs," Ms. Goodman said. "We realized that we needed to revisit the
entire region."

Tarrant County commissioners, who pledged up to $150,000 last week to help
finance the Billy Gregory Detox Center, expect to lobby local cities to
pitch in and persuade state lawmakers to take another look at TCADA financing.

For now, addicts such as Leonard Tolliper, who entered the Billy Gregory
unit Thursday, are grateful for the reopened doors.

"I wanted to live and be able to get along with my family and others," said
Mr. Tolliper, 47, a 15-year alcoholic who recently became addicted to
crack. "I'm extremely proud to be here. It's one of the best steps I've
ever made. I couldn't go through this without the people here. "