Success looks bright for the first year of operation of the Cass County Drug Court.

Attorney Courtney Holland with the Cass County District Attorney’s Office said funds to operate the court came from a federal grant, and it does not cost the county any money.

“Research showed that constant sentencing of felony offenders wasn’t getting to the problem of underlying issues,” Ms. Holland said. “Judge Don Dowd, along with probation officers Catherine Betts and Gary Clayton, and myself, thought the drug court would be helpful to reduce the numbers in the jail for probation violations. I had worked with the drug court in Bowie County.”

Ms. Holland said the team attended a national conference for newly-organized drug courts held in Kansas City, Mo.

“We learned how to form the drug court team, the appropriate sanction incentives, and basically how to set up the drug court,” she said. “We did that in the summer last year and learned how to get new members, who the appropriate candidates were, and how to come back and implement this in Cass County.

“Typically people who are in drug court are people who are facing revocation and are either facing penitentiary time or inpatient time. Drug court is something that is a little less restrictive than inpatient treatment, but more intense than regular probation. This is for any kind of addiction to drugs or alcohol.”

The drug court program can hold up to 30 people, according to Ms. Holland.

“At this time we have 16 in it,” she said. “The time is a minimum of one year for people in the program. This is a very intensive program. They can be in the program longer than a year, depending on their progress. We have sanctions where they may have to serve three days to a two-week jail sanction if they aren’t working their community service or are not attending group meetings. If they have the occasional relapse, various things can happen as sanctions. The drug court keeps them from going to the penitentiary or serving a year in jail.”

Having the support of others is important, according to Ms. Holland.

“They have support of each other and have the support of a counselor whom they work with twice a week,” she said. “They learn different thinking patterns. It teaches them a different way to approach life. In the first phase, they are required to go to Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings weekly, depending on their addiction. They are required to work the 12 steps and obtain a sponsor.

“I got involved because I have so much addiction in my family. I truly do believe in rehabilitation as opposed to just throwing someone away and locking them up. They hold the key when they are in the drug court.”

Judge Dowd said he was pleased with the drug court.

“We have a team concept, and everyone on the team has to undergo training which is part of the Department of Justice,” Judge Dowd said. “A year ago in April we all went to a week-long course, very enlightening, and several of us have been to different courses designed to keep you up to date. It is a wonderful program. Its goal is to try to get people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol help to beat the addiction. The idea is if you can beat the addiction, you can get them out of the criminal justice system and make them a functioning member of society. Some of these folks have been addicted for years and years. This is not an easy thing to do. The success rate is not 100 percent. If you can get 50 to 60 percent graduate the program, you are doing well. It is hard to get people off of drug or alcohol addiction.

“This program has been one of the most effective programs for addiction of people who are also in the court system. We get to know these people on a personal level; they see me every two weeks, and I talk to them one on one. They are under intense supervision.”

There will be a program for the first graduates of the drug court in January.

To:

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Austin Recovery, the largest and most affordable drug and alcohol treatment center in Texas, hosted its first Artists on Recovery fundraiser luncheon at Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater. The event, which sold out a week ago, featured NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” star Rob Lowe as its keynote speaker.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111109/DC03223-a )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111109/DC03223LOGO-b )

Lowe, who is also known for his roles on “The Outsiders,” “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “Wayne’s World,” “The West Wing” and numerous other films and programs, spoke about the positive impact sobriety has made on his own life, as well as that of his family. At the closure of the event, Lowe also signed copies of his recently released memoir, “Stories I Only Tell My Friends,” for event sponsors and key donors.

“This community proved today how much they value giving struggling families a chance,” Lowe said. “I was honored to be a part of such an inspiring event.”

The luncheon’s proceeds, which totaled more than $800,000 in ticket sales and donations, will go toward the construction and operation of Austin Recovery’s new Family House facility. The facility will offer a unique and highly-specialized program that allows mothers to bring their children with them into residential treatment. This program aims to keep families together – bonds between mother and child are created and strengthened in an environment free of addiction.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled about the number of donations and turnout today,” said Jonathan Ross, Austin Recovery CEO. “This is a great beginning to a new life for the many of mothers and children whose lives will be forever changed by Family House.”

Designed by Austin-based Sixthriver Architects, the 21,000 square foot Family House facility will be one-of-a-kind in the nation, providing family-friendly living quarters for mothers and children to stay together, multiple purpose-built play areas, a family style dining hall and a group counseling space. The program at Family House will offer special forms of therapy for the children, allowing them the opportunity to heal through their mother’s recovery process. Without this option, many addict mothers could face losing their children. In 2009, an estimated 22.5 million people (8.9 percent of the total U.S. population aged 12 or older) were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year based on criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSMIV).

“This inspiring fundraiser and Rob Lowe’s speech hit a cord with many of our attendees today,” said Ross. “Many either have battled their own struggle or have had a loved one fall into the hardships of addiction; they know all too well the harmful toll drug and alcohol addiction can take on a family.”

With more than 800 guests, attendees included Mayor Lee Leffingwell, State Representative Donna Howard, Steve Hicks and Donna Stockton Hicks, and representatives from Whole Foods Market. Platinum sponsors included Benchmark Recovery Center, Communities in Recovery and the MAXIMUS Foundation.

About Austin Recovery

Since 1967, Austin Recovery has provided effective and compassionate chemical dependency treatment at very affordable rates. Non-profit and CARF-accredited, their transformational treatment model brings about in-depth cognitive, behavioral and spiritual changes essential for overcoming addiction. Austin Recovery offers a number of programs including medical detox, separate men’s and women’s campuses for 30-day and 90+ day programs, and Family House, which provides a minimum of 90-days of residential drug and alcohol rehab to mothers of young children and women in their third trimester of pregnancy, allowing them to bring up to two children under the age of six with them into treatment. Through parenting education and intensive case management, mothers in Family House are able to reconnect with their children and hone their parenting skills while also recovering from their addiction. Austin Recovery also offers outpatient services, alumni support, family programs, aftercare and community education.

For more information about Austin Recovery, please visit www.austinrecovery.org.

      For more information or more event photos please contact:     Ramona Cruz-Peters                        Christa Berry     Director of Marketing                     Senior Account Executive     Austin Recovery                           I&O Communications     512.697.8506                              512.288.4054     rcruzpeters@austinrecovery.org            christa@iando.com  

SOURCE Austin Recovery

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Where caskets once were built on a hidden Napa street, a longtime social center for recovering addicts has found a new home and new life. 

The reopening of the Alano Center of Napa Valley marks the revival not only of an old building, but of a social club that was a haven for decades for former substance abusers before losing its Napa home four years ago. 

After receiving an anonymous $150,000 donation, the center has leased and remodeled a 9,000-square-foot space that once housed a coffin assembly shop, converting it into a meeting place for recovering addicts.

For visitors at the Alano Center — as well as its new leader — the symbolism is too delicious to resist.

“We talk about that all the time,” said Paige Fuller, who became the Alano Center’s general manager when it opened on Stockton Street in August. 

For 12 hours each day, the Alano Center offers not only a place for meetings and socializing, but also a safety net.

“We have a lot of people who struggle with drugs and alcohol with no place to go between (sobriety) meeting times,” she said Friday. “Now we have somewhere safe for them to be.”

Behind the new clubhouse’s gray metal façade, the old coffin assembly floor now holds two meeting spaces totaling 160 seats, separated by a maroon curtain. Ceiling banners list the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous and similar support groups, which hold meetings in the hall. (The nonprofit Alano Center is not affiliated with AA.)

There is a cafe corner and a “recovery store” featuring self-help books, T-shirts with inspirational messages and pins marking the wearer’s sobriety in months or years. Pool and Ping-Pong tables occupy an upstairs room where workers once sewed fabric into casket liners. There is also a TV lounge and a private room for one-on-one meetings.

For those fighting off addiction, one of the highest hurdles is breaking the mind’s link between getting drunk or high and having fun, according to Fuller, who met her future husband during an AA meeting and married him last month. 

To drive home the possibilities of sober socializing, the Alano Center organizes a weekly slate of dances, karaoke nights and other get-togethers.

For recovering addicts without family in Napa County, the clubhouse plans to host a Christmas Eve “Alcathon” and New Year’s party.

“When I got sober, I thought I would never have any fun again in my entire life,” Fuller recalled. “But after meeting with others who suffer from the same thing, I have more fun in sobriety than I ever had drinking, because I can be exactly who I am. I don’t have to be all the faces I was for everybody else; I can be who I am, and be OK with that.”

The Alano Center’s lease at Stockton Street runs through 2014, and the group says about 120 people pay monthly or yearly dues to use the clubhouse (staff volunteers can attend free). 

On the second day after the Alano Center reopened, a man showed up in the morning, left, then returned five more times, Fuller said. On his last appearance that day, he accepted a hot dog at the canteen — then spilled out his story.

“He was standing next to me and he was in tears,” she said. “He told me, ‘If it weren’t for you, today I’d already be drunk by now because I have nowhere else to go.’

“You could have had a bad day, and instead of drugs or drinking, you can come here — and there’ll be someone who’s gone through something similar to what you did. Because we’ve all been in this position; we’ve all had this disease.”

CRANBURY: Cranbury takes ‘proactive’ mode against bullying DATE POSTED: Thursday, October 20, 2011 5:06 PM EDT

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Newswise — A new study of teens undergoing substance abuse treatment finds helping others helps the adolescent helper by reducing cravings for alcohol and drugs, a major precipitator of relapse. These novel findings stem from the “Helping Others” study (http://helpingotherslivesober.org) led by Maria Pagano, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Results of this large investigation involving 195 substance dependent juvenile offenders reveal that helping others in 12-step programs significantly improves adolescent treatment response. Featured in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this study also shows that youth service participation mediates the influence of lifetime religious practices on treatment outcomes.

“Our findings indicate that service participation in 12-step programs can reduce the craving symptoms experienced by adolescents in treatment for alcohol and or drug addiction,” Dr. Pagano says. “Similarly, we found that substance-dependent adolescents with greater religious backgrounds participate more during treatment in 12-step programs of recovery, which leads to better health outcomes.”

This observational, longitudinal study is the first to examine the relationship between adolescent 12-step participation during treatment, lifetime religiosity, and clinical outcomes, replicating findings shown among adults in Dr. Pagano’s prior collaborative research.

Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the investigation comprised 93 boys and 102 girls, ages 14-18, court-referred for residential treatment at New Directions, the largest adolescent residential treatment facility in Northeast Ohio. The majority were marijuana dependent (92%) with comorbid alcohol dependence (60%). Participants were interviewed within the first 10 days of treatment and two months later at treatment discharge. Outcomes assessed included urine toxicology screens, alcohol/drug craving symptoms, clinical characteristics, and global psychosocial functioning.

Controlling for background characteristics and clinical severity, Dr. Pagano and colleagues found that Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous-related helping, as part of treatment, improved four of seven outcomes. These included reductions in two types of craving symptoms, reduced narcissistic entitlement, and improved psychosocial functioning. Higher lifetime religious practices, such as prayer, worship, and meditation, were associated with higher service participation during treatment, which in turn, led to better outcomes.

“Because most religions encourage altruistic behaviors, youths entering treatment with greater religious backgrounds may have an easier time engaging in service in 12-step programs of recovery,” Dr. Pagano explains. “In turn, youth entering treatment with low or no religious background may require greater 12-step facilitation or a different approach to derive equal benefit from treatment.”

Adolescent addiction has increased dramatically in the past decade at a time when treatment resources are dwindling. Craving for alcohol and drugs is a major precipitator of relapse and can linger long after the detoxification period. While newly developed medications can block cravings, they are not approved for use with adolescents. Service participation is a natural, no-cost behavioral approach that can reduce adolescents’ craving symptoms as they adjust to a sober lifestyle.

This study examined end-of-treatment outcomes. Dr. Pagano’s continued research in this area will investigate the impact of AA/NA-related helping on post-treatment health outcomes.

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About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation’s top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School’s innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes–research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism–to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the school of medicine.

Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report “Guide to Graduate Education.”

The School of Medicine’s primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu.

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In the new Urengoe (Yamal) work is under way to establish district rehabilitation center for treatment of drug and alcohol dependency. On the 8 November told BakuToday the press service of the Governor of Yamal-Nenets.

Suffering from drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation programmes will be offered from several days up to six months. The Centre’s work is planned in such a way as to serve patients from all over the district up to 60 people per year. Treat those suffering from addictions are professional specialists-psychologists, psychotherapists, gynecologist. In addition, the participation of representatives of the Orthodox Church.

Also a new Rehabilitation Centre plans to work closely with the Dušepopečitel′skim Centre of the Holy Righteous John of kronstadt, which was established in 1996, as a place where there might be the rehabilitation of victims of the occult or totalitarian cults.

DUBBO residents knocking back booze because of anger, stress or sleeplessness are among the targets of a Salvation Army campaign that is highlighting the links between alcohol misuse and mental health.

The Christian social welfare organisation, affectionately known as the Salvos, wants them to review their use of alcohol and make it a topic of conversation with family and friends.

The annual alcohol awareness campaign running this week highlights new research showing 81 per cent of Australians believe drinking alcohol can worsen a person’s state of mental health.

Major Glenn Whittaker, clinical director of recovery services in the eastern territory of the Salvation Army, thinks “some of the messages are getting through”, but more work is required.

The research by Roy Morgan, involving the random telephone surveying of 638 Australians over the age of 14 years, found that about two million people think drinking alcohol does not affect mental health while almost 600,000 say it can improve mental health.

Major Whittaker said the vast majority of Australians used alcohol responsibly, but “all too often we are seeing the damage alcohol is doing to people and families”.

“We see huge numbers of people who have anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders. Too often this is linked to alcohol issues” he said.

The survey also determined that 10 per cent of the population sometimes uses alcohol to deal with “feeling down or anxious”, and 21 per cent sometimes end up drinking more than they planned to.

Gerard Byrne, communications and public relations secretary for the eastern territory, said the Salvos strongly encouraged drinkers to talk with friends and family and find ways to “look out for each other when life is not a bed of roses”.

He said that quite often the effects of alcohol remained unchecked until a serious addiction developed.

“We know that there are plenty of people out there that use alcohol to cope with anger, stress and sometimes sleeplessness,’ Mr Byrne said.

“It does not help and it is not going to.

“If people think they are having problems or issues, see your GP. Reach out. Treatment works. Help is out there. Contact your local Salvation Army or salvationarmy.org.au.”