RELIGIOUS GROUP TO HOLD FEET TO FIRE

LAKELAND - Two major health needs in Polk County - residential drug-
abuse treatment and accessible, affordable medical care - will be in
the spotlight Monday when the Polk Ecumenical Action Council for
Empowerment, or PEACE, holds its seventh Nehemiah Action accountability rally.

PEACE, with members from more than 20 congregations countywide,
provides a confrontational conscience on local social issues. At
times it pushes governing groups, such as the public school system,
to try approaches they haven't taken before.

With these two topics, however, the group has some strong allies.

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd worked with PEACE in compiling statistics on
Polk's limited number of treatment beds for drug and alcohol abusers.

Employees of Polk County's Community Health and Social Services unit,
although perceived as too slow in getting primary care medical
clinics up and running, say they too want the process to move faster.

PEACE wants more than support, however. It wants timetables and
specifics, delivered concisely and rapidly, at the 7 p.m. public
rally at Cypress Cathedral in Winter Haven.

So who's going to be on the hot seat this time?

Ed Smith. The county unit he directs runs the Polk HealthCare plan
and is responsible for other indigent health-care spending. PEACE
members want to know when primary care clinics are coming to their cities.

Gaye Williams, executive director of Central Florida Health Care. The
Polk County Commission approved a contract last week for her to open
a primary care clinic in Lakeland and PEACE wants to know more about
it and what's planned elsewhere.

Polk County commissioners. From them, PEACE wants commitment to set
up a program to get more rehabilitation beds into Polk County. It's
also likely to tell commissioners they promised a primary care clinic
by September 2006 and one a year for the next four years after that.

"We want them to tell us what they are willing to do about setting up
a substance-abuse rehabilitation program," said the Rev. Ronnie Clark
of Hurst AME in Winter Haven and a PEACE co-chairman.

"It's a good issue, a good cause. It will do a lot to help our communities."

Polk County has 21 residential beds for treatment, compared with 280
available and 75 more on the way for Volusia County, said the Rev.
Chris Hoffmann of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Haines City.

"There's no way the 21 beds we've got are going to be enough," said
Hoffman, the other PEACE co-chairman. He said more than 40,000 people
in Polk County need substance-abuse treatment.

Adding more rehabilitation is "an integral part of holistic crime
fighting," Judd said.

"It's not enough to just lock up criminals. We must break the cycle
of crime," he said.

"It's not being soft on crime. It's being tough on crime from every direction."