Giving people back
their lives

By TOM RUE

ALBANY — As part of their mission, Sullivan Advocates speak out for substance abuse prevention and treatment for youth and adults in recovery.

This is what Veronica Uss, executive director of the Recovery Center of Monticello, was doing when she and 16 others joined an estimated 300 from around the state at a meeting at the capitol building on February 29th. The meeting was coordinated by the Council on Addictions of New York State. Sporting buttons which had the word "Stigma" with a line drawn through it, participants included drug and alcohol counselors, social workers and recovering addicts.

The Recovery Center in Monticello offers addiction prevention and treatment services and educational programs relating to the impact of alcohol and drug abuse on individuals and families. The Kids’ Klub, Safe Summer Camp, Sober Teens Outpatient Services (STOPS) and Children’s Education and Recovery Through Art (CERTA), aimed at children at risk of being orphaned as a result of AIDS, are all services for youth offered at the Recovery Center.

Lenora Carter, an alumni of the Recovery Center, said she went to Albany in support of her own family and children. Carter’s quiet presence and the identification of her concerns spoke volumes about her desire to help kids and others learn not to be caught in addiction’s destructive cycles.

Rita Saletan, a student assistance counselor with middle school and high school students in Liberty, said she went to ask for more preventive services. "I was really surprised with how receptive everybody was. Their questions indicated they were listening. Next year, she said, she plans to take some students.

James Edwards, 57, a resident of the Recovery Center’s "Shelter-Plus-Care" apartment program, said he was "a living example that programs like this give people back their lives. Without it, I would probably still be a bum out in the street." A six-year county resident, Edwards credited the Recovery Center with helping him turn his life around. He now works full-time as a maintenance worker at a Liberty hotel.

"These places reach out and touch people. If it works for me, it will work for anyone. I’ve truly been blessed to find this out," he said.

Uss explained that, with 26 years in recovery herself, she joined the event more as an individual than as head of one of the county’s largest addiction treatment facilities. "The U.S. is spending $100 million a day to incarcerate people whose primary problem is alcohol or drugs," she noted. Devoting more funds to prevention would be economical and civilized, Uss added. "General Barry McCaffrey [head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy] has said interdiction is not the way to go. It’s treatment that we really need to emphasize," she said.

Marshall Robinson, a paralegal in a Monticello law firm who identified himself as a recovering addict, said he and other local constituents met with Assembly members Jacob Gunther and Harvey Weisenberg and Senators John Bonacic and Patricia McGee.

Sandy Johnson, director of outpatient services at the center, said Weisenberg promised to set up an appointment for the group with a member of Governor Pataki’s staff to go over policy concerns.

Uss explained that the Sullivan Advocates and other similar groups statewide were galvanized by a recent article appearing in the New York City press about a Yale graduate who suffered from alcoholism, but his insurance company refused to pay for inpatient treatment. Finally, coverage was approved—three weeks after the man died of his disease. "That struck all of us who care about these issues very deeply," she said.

For more information about the Recovery Center or Sullivan Advocates, call 914/794-8080.

— Two-thirds of all Federal alcohol/drug funding goes to the War on Drugs and only one third goes to prevention and treatment.

— Over 60 percent of police chiefs throughout the U.S. claim the War on Drugs is not working.

— The War on Drugs, by criminalizing the illness of addiction, increases stigma that dramatically reduces options for treatment and recovery.

— Alcohol/drug addiction responds as well, often better, to treatment as other chronic illnesses.

— In N.Y., alcohol/drug addiction does not have parity with other chronic illnesses. As a result, insurance companies often do not offer addiction coverage and managed care companies can and do successfully deny needed treatment.

— Comprehensive insurance coverage for alcohol/drug addiction increases insurance premiums by only 3 percent on average.

— Prisoners who participate in treatment programs while incarcerated are 70 percent less likely to return to drugs and criminal behavior.

— Incarceration of women for drug offenses has increased 888 percent since 1986.

Youth in Focus next week will feature an article on the Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) chapter of Fallsburg high school.