STATE GRANT HELPS ESTABLISH DRUG TREATMENT FOR YOUTHS

FORT WORTH -- A father whose daughter died of a heroin overdose last year
told Tarrant County commissioners yesterday that a $1 million state grant
for a countywide youth drug treatment program will save children's lives.

The Texas Alcohol and Substance Abuse Commission grant will provide initial
funding for a 16-bed live-in drug-treatment facility, counseling, case
management and outpatient care, county officials said.

"With every single bed you provide, you are saving the life of a child,"
said Tommy Taylor, a Hurst-Euless-Bedford school board member and a teacher
at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth.

His daughter, Kristin, 19, died of a drug overdose in October. Taylor sold
his business and his house, he said, but eventually ran out of money to pay
for rehabilitation before his daughter died. It was hard for him to
understand drug use and the problems associated with it until it hit home,
with his daughter, he told the commissioners.

"These are not problem kids. These are kids with problems," said Taylor, who
lives in Hurst. "Don't think too small. We have a tremendous problem out
there."

Commissioner Glen Whitley, who has worked to make the Adolescent Recovery
Project a reality, yesterday called it a "public-private partnership to
integrate all services under one roof for a smooth transition between the
various phases of care."

Although the grant money is enough to start the project, it is not enough to
provide all the services to the young people who need them, said Jennifer
Gilley, executive director of Challenge Inc., the nonprofit social service
agency that will oversee the new treatment program.

The project is seeking donations from individuals, businesses, churches and
cities, Gilley said. It does not have a building, and Gilley asked jokingly
if the codoes not have a building, and Gilley asked jokingl Even without a
building, the Tarrant Council on Alcoholism and Abuse is expected to soon
begin intervention assessments of clients, Gilley said. After live-in
treatment, Santa Fe Adolescent Services would provide day treatment and have
an on-site school. Family Service would provide counseling and group
sessions, she said.

"We hope to have the program fully operational by April," Gilley said. The
program will offer "wrap-around" services to allow clients to enter
treatment at the needed level, Gilley said. If there are too many people for
a phase of the program, the needs of the adolescents and their families
"will be met at some level" until they can get the most appropriate care,
she said.

Eric Niedermayer, chief of mental health and addiction programs for Tarrant
County Mental Health-Mental Retardation Services, said there are so few
drug-treatment beds in Tarrant County available to adolescents that parents
are forced to send their children out of state for treatment.

"There really isn't anything local, and this program will be available to
anyone, with insurance or not," he said.

Heroin has had a deadly impact on North Texas in the past two years, with
more than two dozen area residents having died while using the drug. In
addition to Tarrant County deaths, fatalities involving heroin use have
occurred in Denton, Plano, Allen and Lake Dallas. In most cases, a potent
form of the drug, black tar heroin, has been used.

The region has been declared a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which
will combine local, state and federal resources to improve
intelligence-gathering and to coordinate drug investigations.

The Adolescent Recovery Project, providing all its services in one building,
"will save years in getting help" and save lives, Taylor said.

Neil Strassman, (817) 390-7657

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