TEEN DRUG PROGRAM RESUMES -- FOR NOW

Teen Choice Found Enough Money To Reopen Its Doors, But Its Future Remains
Uncertain

LEESBURG -- Teen Choice, the only residential treatment facility for
young substance abusers in Lake and Sumter counties, has reopened
after financial problems forced it to close last year.

"I was surprised at how happy people were that we opened back up,"
said Dave Rattray, program supervisor. "Everybody has been offering to
help. When we finally opened and I announced it at one meeting we got
this tremendous applause."

But no one can say for sure how long the program will stay
open.

"The money we were given is not recurrent funding," said Jill Baird,
senior vice president and chief clinical officer at LifeStream
Behavioral Center.

That's the same problem the program had last year.

Teen Choice started taking clients last March using $200,000 in what
the state called six-month nonrecurring funding. LifeStream asked for
$400,000 from the state to keep the program going. The request was
denied, and the program was forced to close in September.

But after advocates pushed to get more money, $133,000 in state funds
was appropriated to LifeStream to help Teen Choice. The counties
provided the appropriate local match for the state dollars, and Teen
Choice reopened Jan. 12.

The average length of stay for patients is four to six months, Baird
said. The program has enough money to stay afloat for at least that
long. So, it is reaching out to as many children as it can accommodate
and continuing to look for additional money to keep the program going.

Patients are housed in a 12-bed dormitory and are schooled at the
Leesburg campus. They participate in group counseling as well as
one-on-one sessions, and attend support group meetings several times a
week.

The idea of the program is to treat the young addicts in a controlled
environment so they can escape the heavy influences of their peers,
who often are addicts, too.

"For the kids we have here, there is no other choice," Rattray
said.

"Outpatient is not an option. They don't have what it takes to get
sober in outpatient. Life just gets worse and worse. Here we focus on
recovery all the time, and they are away from the drugs."

Last year the program was open to boys and girls. This year, the
program is only open to boys. The program reopened with the enrollment
of three boys -- two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old.

"It's so much more complicated when you have both genders together,"
Rattray said.

"It's potentially distracting."

Girls who call the program for help are referred to a 20-bed facility
in Gainesville, he said.

Rattray swears by the program's success, and plans to have former
patients come back and offer support to the new ones.

"Kids are in such crisis," he said.

"They can get in here and get clean."