YOUTH DRUG-COUNSELING PROGRAM SHUTS ITS DOORS

The Saint Francis Academy Inc. will close its youth-based therapy and
drug-counseling services in Espanola on March 29 and lay off about 15
employees.

The national nonprofit organization based in Kansas blamed the closure of
its New Mexico operation on a lack of funds for behavioral health care
services.

"We're running out of money," said the Rev. John Zachritz, executive
director of the New Mexico program. "We've had a deficit since we arrived
six years ago and have not been able to rise above it. They just quite
rightly decided to close this operation."

The academy employs 15 therapists, counselors or staff members who
currently serve about 180 youths in the Espanola Valley, Zachritz said.
Youths and families now in therapy are being referred to other
mental-health providers in Espanola, Los Alamos and Santa Fe.

Funding for the academy's outpatient program came from Medicaid
reimbursements and a grant from the state Children, Youth and Families
Department.

A few employees will remain after March 29 to complete two programs funded
through June, including a tutorial program at Espanola Valley High School
funded by the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation and a federally
funded drug-prevention program for at-risk youths and their families.

Rio Arriba County, which has long struggled with a drug epidemic blamed on
black-tar heroin, has purchased a defunct treatment facility in Velarde
with federal funds and plans to offer drug-treatment services there after a
renovation of the property.