TRUCKEE CLINIC AN OASIS FOR ADDICTS

Nonprofit Agency Treats Abusers, Family

For some Truckee-area residents struggling with drug and alcohol
addiction, their search for help and hope leads them to a
community-based treatment clinic on Palisades Drive.

"Truckee is a very unique community, it would score higher than other
communities and the people here really pull together," said Community
Recovery Resources executive director Warren Daniels.

Based in Grass Valley, the nonprofit Community Recovery Resources
employs a staff of 37, including four in the Truckee clinic, to
provide counseling and education to families troubled by addiction.

"The real success is supporting the family," Daniels
said.

With drug and alcohol abuse holding a stigma that can lead drug users
to hide their addictive behavior, the agency's development director,
Jim Phelps, said he would like to see the public become aware of how
substance abuse affects them. Even if someone does not use drugs, drug
abuse by others can affect them in fundamental ways.

"Economically, the tax dollars that are spent in law enforcement, in
the courts and incarceration are more than the costs for treatment,"
Phelps said. "Socially, the more substance abuse affects the
community, [the more] it affects our quality of life." Phelps said the
number-one drug of choice among abusers is methamphetamine, with
alcohol and marijuana secondary choices.

A report by the Community Collaborative of Truckee Tahoe estimated
that nearly half of high school students have used drugs or alcohol in
the last 30 days.

The nonprofit agency offers one-on-one and group therapy sessions,
drug testing, parenting and anger management classes along with life
skills programs to teach reading, money management and how to write a
resume. Many of the agency's monthly caseload of 750-800 clients,
including 170 served by the Truckee clinic, have been ordered into
treatment by the courts.

Community Recovery Resources mainly serves Nevada, Yuba, Sutter and
Placer counties. Established in 1974, the nonprofit agency opened the
Truckee satellite office in 1990.

The nonprofit operates Hope House as a residential facility for
displaced women and children, and two transitional facilities, one for
women and children and the other for men. Clients can stay up to 90
days.

Phelps said his agency has placed certified counselors in some western
Nevada County schools.

Illegal drugs are not the only one that officials at the agency worry
about. "Prescription pill abuse is just as big of a problem as any
other -- it could be your grandmother or your neighbor," Phelps said.

Officials at the help center said that drug and alcohol addiction is
as bad or worse than heart disease.

"We're all fighting a disease -- an insidious disease that denigrates
our society," Daniels said. "Our focus is creating healthy families
thereby creating healthy communities."

The counseling agency receives 40 percent of its revenues from
contracts with various government entities, 40 percent from client
fees and the rest through fundraising and grants.