FRESH HOPE FOR YOUNG ADDICTS

Britain's First Adolescent Drugs Unit Is Luxurious - But No Soft Option.

CIGARETTE smoke curls out from a sunny room where four teenagers are
laughing and chattering. Down the corridor, in one child's room, five
pairs of trainers are lined up with touching precision; a vividly
coloured soft toy sits on a chair. There are bright posters and family
pictures; a school file has been tossed on to the bed.

Despite such outward displays of normality, these children are young
addicts struggling to overcome their dependence on heroin, a drug that
nowadays can cost less than pounds 10 a fix. They are, though,
relatively "lucky". They have been admitted - some through the youth
justice system or by social workers - to Britain's first fully
comprehensive adolescent drug recovery unit. The cost per child is
pounds 1,984 a week.

Today, the unit will be officially launched by Keith Hellawell, the
country's "drugs tsar", who is leading a major government initiative
against the big business drug economy.

Drug abuse is spreading into every stratum of society - and into ever
younger age groups. Leah Newton, a 13-year-old from Grimsby, was the
youngest child to die from a drug mixture; but in some areas, addicts
are much younger. In one study, more than 40 per cent of 15- to
16-year-olds questioned admitted to drug misuse.

However, despite the official endorsement, the pioneering 12-bed
centre is not an NHS venture - although its first patients have been
funded by health authorities or social services. Known as Parc, the
unit has been set up by the private Priory healthcare group at its
Woodbourne Hospital in Birmingham.

The Priory group of psychiatric hospitals is well known for treating
such celebrities as Kate Moss, Paula Yates and Paul Gascoigne. Yet
throughout the group, 30 to 40 per cent of patients are funded by
health or local authorities.

Lee Reed, the hospital manager, explains: "We were increasingly
conscious of an urgent need for residential treatment for adolescents.
NHS provision is extremely limited, especially for anyone under 18."

Parc offers adolescents under 18 a free assessment, "detox" if
necessary - there are two "detox" beds - and a 12-week structured
programme. This is based on the 12-step Minnesota model and aimed at
slowly reversing the addictive disease process.

Dean Holyoake, Parc's unit manager, expects a growing waiting list.
"In the past, young addicts have largely been treated alongside
adults. But they have different needs. Many have lost a year or more
of childhood and have a lot of developing to do.

"They have usually spent all day obsessed by where the next hit will
come from. They are sick, panic-stricken and desperate to lose the
craving. But they utterly lack confidence and have no sense of self
worth."

Parc describes its approach as holistic and takes into account the
mental and social issues that might lie behind the slump into
addiction. As well as a psychiatrist, addiction therapists and nurses,
there is a full-time teacher qualified in emotional and behavioural
learning problems.

Parents are welcomed to regular weekend family therapy meetings. Dave
Phillips, one of the addiction therapists, says: "Sometimes we find
that busy parents do not know how to listen to their children or
communicate openly with them. We can help them unravel the tensions
that lead to rebellion."

Often, says Dean, young addicts from broken homes say that being an
addict can make them feel good. "They may be scouts or runners or make
money by being a middle person. They feel wanted by others like
themselves. They are, of course, running from reality and, inevitably,
the drug controls them. We aim to give them a sense of belonging with
us as a community - and with their parents and their peers."

The Parc unit is luxurious by most NHS standards but, despite the
large, single rooms, an immaculate little kitchen where snacks can be
rustled up and a large outside area for basketball and football, this
is not a soft option. Group meetings, one-on-one sessions with a
therapist, lectures about drugs, school work and exercise take up much
of the day.

Each night, the children write diaries. "It is a way of taking
ownership of their lives," says Dave. "We see subtle changes in their
attitudes; they become more open. They rage sometimes, but we can use
that to their benefit. It could be that they have triggered a buried
emotion."

The teenagers are free to discharge themselves. None has yet done so.
But will they relapse at the end of the treatment, or after the free
year's aftercare? For parents, distraught as they see a child
disintegrate, this is the vital question.

In the Priory's drug and alcohol adult units, just under an estimated
70 per cent remain clean two years later. Taking the most cautious
view, the Priory forecasts a success rate of around 50 per cent -
though hopes for at least 60.

Nearly pounds 2,000 a week seems expensive, but a week in an NHS
adolescent unit covering a range of psychiatric and behavioural
problems costs about pounds 1,500. Government drug policy is a
balancing act, with increasing emphasis on education and prevention.

This has led to fears of a squeeze on public money needed to expand
treatment for vulnerable teenagers. Yet, when the alternative is
paying for several years' detention - once faced by Ryan Harrison (see
right) - or the threat of a lethal overdose, which Meg Johnson feared
for her son, the cost seems comparatively little.

`I looked horrible: skinny, with filthy, matted hair and dirty
skin'

RYAN HARRISON, who is just 18, sounds mature beyond his years as he
talks of his duty to take care of Lily Jane, his daughter, and to be
someone his younger brother can respect. "I am working as a lifeguard
and saving to take lifeguard teacher training courses," he says.

His impressive respectability has been hard won. At 14, he was already
addicted to crack - a form of cocaine that is smoked in a pipe and
produces an instant hit. It has been described as the most powerful
pharmaceutical stimulant known to man.

Ryan turned to cocaine to bury his feelings after the disappearance of
his mother, who went shopping one day and was never seen again.
Despite suspicious circumstances, the police have not solved the mystery.

"I was very close to my mother. She always did her best and gave me
everything and she was on my mind every minute. I could not handle her
disappearance and fell in with the wrong crowd. I thought I could try
crack or leave it. But a day later, I had a huge craving to take it
again." Within six months, the penniless Ryan was a one-man crime wave.

"First, it was car radios. Then restaurants and shops. Sometimes I
would spend pounds 50 a night on a fix; sometimes, it could be pounds
600. Nothing would divert me.

"I looked horrible: skinny, with filthy, matted hair and black, dirty
skin - a complete wreck."

He was arrested many times, but no real attempt was made to provide
treatment.

"In detention, I was a criminal. I was clean, but I still craved the
next hit when I got out.

"On release, I was sometimes given bed and breakfast accommodation in
an area crawling with dealers. What was the point?"

His salvation came at the age of 16, when he was sentenced to four
years detention. On appeal - and following strenuous support from
Sally (his girlfriend and Lily Jane's mother), his social worker,
grandmother and solicitor - a judge told him: "I believe you can make
something of your life."

Ryan was released after only two months, on condition he accepted
treatment at the Priory's Nottingham clinic for drug and alcohol abuse.

"It was incredibly intensive. We were in meetings by 8.30 in the
morning, but it was wonderful. I always knew it was the drug and the
craving that led to the thieving, and not really me.

"I found my old self there. I thought about Mum and felt I owed it to
her to pull through."

He would like to help others like himself. "I hope that by speaking
up, any former addict friends might believe they could stop, too." But
he is also honest. "The threat of prison also made a big
difference."

How can he be sure he will not relapse? He shudders. "I could never go
back. It was horrible in the black, freezing cold in the middle of the
night, looking for something to steal.

"And I have my wonderful family."

LIKE most parents, Meg Johnson knew nothing about illegal drugs. Now,
she feels she could take a degree in pharmacology. Her son, Neil,
progressed from cannabis and ecstasy at independent school to heroin
at college.

"The signs were under my nose, but I did not understand until almost a
year later. Money went missing, but there was always a plausible
excuse. He was desperate to be independent and was allowed to live in
a family flat."

With no shortage of cash, Neil and his friends avoided any brush with
the law. Otherwise, there was little difference between his life and
Ryan's. "When I called at the flat in the middle of the day, he was
often in bed. Then, one day, I called unexpectedly and found a bottle
of methadone.

"He was 18 at that point and, when we confronted him, it was tears all
round. He was desperate to stop and had been given the methadone by a
doctor. There was a three-month waiting list for treatment, until we
discovered that Bupa would pay for a private clinic."

Neil is now 20 and, following a short relapse, making slow progress in
recovery. His mother says: "I am quite pessimistic. I wish we had
taken action much sooner."

Dave Phillips advises parents to take care if some of following signs
become apparent: discernible changes in behaviour; money and objects
going missing; a different circle of friends; frequent late nights; a
serious fall-off in school work; deterioration in appearance.

"They may not indicate misuse of drugs, but it is always best to
contact someone like us or to ask for referral by a GP to a
psychotherapist or psychiatrist."

Families Anonymous: for families and friends of drug users: 0171- 498 4680.

National Drug Helpline (24-hour, confidential): 0800
776600.

Narcotics Anonymous: 0171-730 0009

Institute for the Study of Drug Addiction: 0171-928 1211

Standing Conference on Drug Abuse: for advice on local drug
services and treatment: 0171-928 9500

Parc, Priory Woodbourne Hospital: 0121 429 8661