ET REHAB CENTERS DRIED OUT

East Texas needs drug money.

That's what the region's detox and rehab center officials say while
waiting to hear if any of the $13.5 million in federal
addiction-kicking money Texas received Thursday will go to them.

Some don't think it will.

"Yes, we're rural, we're sometimes overlooked, and in my opinion there
is a disparity of funding," said Susan Erwin, director of East Texas
Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the region's screening and referral
center. "All too often rural communities miss out on a lot of funded
programs."

But Erwin said their plea isn't unfounded.

Untreated drug and alcohol addiction is a serious weakness in the
region, according to the state health department's 2007 East Texas
Community Needs Assessment released in June.

The report said 113,938 East Texans who need treatment for alcohol or
drug use don't receive it - 14,495 of those are in Smith County alone.

A Longview United Way health survey released this month echoed the
state's findings and established illegal drug use and alcohol abuse as
two of its community's biggest issues.

"We're looking at a problem that's on everybody's mind," Erwin said,
"a problem that's under funded; a problem that impacts our community
on a number of levels, from an individual that's addicted to the
family to which they belong to their employer."

The region's ability to treat addiction is paralyzed by its sparse
facilities, said Sandra McLaughlin, program manager of The Beginning
in Tyler.

The Beginning is one of five detox, inpatient and outpatient rehab
centers in East Texas that makes up Community HealthCORE, the only
state-funded adult alcohol and drug treatment agency in the region.

HealthCORE's inpatient services are particularly parched for
funding.

"There are 23 inpatient beds (within HealthCORE) that serve residents
for 23 counties," Erwin said, many of which are filled by referrals
from ETCADA, which screens 100 to 150 users a month.

The result is a waiting list.

For users fighting addiction - some just out of detox - a one-or
two-week wait can ruin their shot at treatment.

"We often times lose people during the wait time," Erwin said. "They
go out and use, get back into addictive behavior. Then we get a bed
available and we can't find them."

Priority patients - such as pregnant users, users with children or
IV-drug users - trump the waiting period, making it difficult for
addicts who are deemed less severe.

"Alcoholics have a hard time getting in," said Debbie Ross, a licensed
chemical dependency counselor at The Beginning.

McLaughlin and Ross said the other hindrance is how few facilities the
region has to serve an expansive 23 counties.

Less than eight facilities are state-funded for users who can't pay
for treatment. None exist in Wood, Henderson, Rusk, Cherokee or Camp
counties.

The Beginning, located in central Tyler, has had outpatient clients at
its morning and afternoon sessions from as far as Mineola, Grand
Saline, Canton and Palestine.

"With the price of gas, it's so hard for them to come to outpatient
here," McLaughlin said. "Usually if someone lives farther away we
don't have them come in as often - they just can't afford it."

But some don't have a choice.

Ross said more than half of their users are referred from probation
offices or child protective services. Both often require at least 90
days at outpatient.

"There was a lady from Winnsboro who came to stay at a halfway house
in Tyler just because she couldn't afford to drive all that way," Ross
said. "It's what she had to do to get her kids back - she lived here
two months."

Methamphetamines, crack, marijuana and alcohol are the four major
drugs abused by the 30 to 50 users who are treated at The Beginning
each day, Ross said.

But stereotyping a user is difficult, she said. They range from
18-year-olds to 45 year-olds, moms to businessmen.

About one-fourth started using when they were 14, she said, a critical
age when parties, friends or independence lead them to drugs.

Some had parents who used, parents who taught them to use, or parents
who were drug dealers, she said.

Others didn't start using until their 30s - methamphetamines often
attract middle-aged residents seeking energy and weight-loss.

"In a year and half they can go from occasionally using to
manufacturing and selling," she said. "Next thing they know they're
going to jail."

Ross said starting drugs has nothing to do with being
poor.

But being an addict almost always leads to unemployment.

"The nature of the disease of addiction is people lose jobs, get
arrested, and lose their means to get treatment," Erwin said.
"Addiction impacts East Texas communities in a significant way, so
money that is funneled into treatment and prevention are dollars well
spent."

Underfunding is frustrating, but watching some treatment programs get
cut completely is worse, McLaughlin said.

Addiction treatment for women and pregnant women were hit hardest in
recent years, she said. A Longview program that treated an average of
22 to 25 women was cut back to service four to six, she said. And a
three-year federal grant to treat pregnant women was not renewed a few
years ago.

"We treated around 120 pregnant women during those three years,"
McLaughlin said. "It's really hard to get a pregnant woman in
treatment for any length of time; funding is set up that it won't pay
for pregnant women to go (for the length of their pregnancy)."

Erwin wants to see a move toward treatment over jail
time.

"Incarceration is very expensive," she said. "Treatment should be
provided to a person who committed a non-felony crime to quickly
re-enter society and become a productive part of it. Too many times
people go to jail and don't come out better."

Erwin said funding and a community's view of addiction both need
reconsideration.

"There is a stigma attached to addiction, and it's hard for our
community to get its arms around and feel good about helping someone
with a disorder some feel is self-imposed," she said. "But if you look
at crime, violence, underage drinking, domestic violence, all too
often a high percentage is committed under the influence of drugs and
alcohol."