DETOX CLOSURE TO HAMPER RECOVERY

People trying to overcome their heroin addictions will have a harder time
finding help in the Pioneer Valley, now that state budget cuts have forced
the closure of one of this area's four detox centers.

Beacon Recovery Center, of Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, which
opened in 1980 and had 14 beds, closed May 9. It was the only detox
facility along the Route 2 corridor, said Dr. Amy Fowler, head of Cooley
Dickinson Hospital's outpatient substance abuse center.

Hampshire County has never had a detox facility, the closest being at
Providence Hospital in Holyoke. The two other detox centers west of
Worcester are Baystate Medical Center's Carlson Recovery Center in
Springfield and Pittsfield's McGee Unit in Hillcrest Hospital.

Detox programs take about a week for a patient to complete.

The state also cut funding to longer, 10-day detox programs and now such
programs are available only to those who can pay for them at Carlson and
McGee, according to Philip Rugo, director of residential rehabilitation
services at Cooley Dickinson's Hairston House, in Northampton.

"Unless you have money, there's no place to go," Fowler said.

Hairston House, on 25 Graves Ave., is a recovery home for men who have
completed detox. It is one of nine such recovery homes in western
Massachusetts. The average resident stays at Hairston for about five
months. Its staff treats 17 men and there is a two-month waiting list to
get in. There, participants learn life skills, support each other in
staying sober and prepare to re-enter society.

Although Hairston is state-funded, cuts to detox programs still affect its
operations, Rugo said. "People are applying to our programs who are in a
lot rougher state," he said. "Our jobs have never been designed to do the
detox stuff."

Even funding for Hairston House is precarious and the program is at risk,
Rugo said. The amount of the facility's contract has been reduced by the
state for two years in a row, and further cuts threaten the program's
existence, Rugo said. Hairston House officials have always done fund
raising, but now they do it for the program to "just ... stay alive."

Recovering addicts, including the men in Hairston House, can also take
advantage of outpatient programs, such as the one Cooley Dickinson runs in
Florence. Fowler, the program's director, estimates that about a quarter of
the 12 to 18 people in her program at any given time are recovering heroin
addicts.

One form of treatment is methadone, a drug that staves off the withdrawal
symptoms of heroin. A for-profit agency, Community Substance Abuse Center,
runs methadone clinics in Northampton, Springfield, Chicopee and Greenfield.

Habit Management, which calls itself the largest narcotic treatment
provider in Massachusetts, also has an office in Springfield. According to
its Web site, more than 70 percent of people enrolled in methadone
maintenance treatment for longer than a year no longer use heroin.