Increase in addicts affects treatment centers

[This is the fourth in a series on drug and alcohol abuse in Wayne County.]

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE — Bonnie Tolerico needs more money. The Executive Director of the Wayne County Drug and Alcohol Commission said it’s challenging to stretch state funding to support the increasing number of county residents who either volunteer or are ordered by the court to enter treatment for their addictions.

The level of funding was set a few years ago, prior to the recent rise in drug problems in Wayne County. The fiscal year Tolerico works with runs from July 1 to June 3.

“The recent statistics that show the increase in addictions of all kinds are startling,” Tolerico said.

Three years ago, her program, located at 318, 10th Street in Honesdale, handled 285 assessments of addicted individuals. Two years ago, the number climbed to 373; and this past year the number was 507.

“The level of care addicts get depends on how bad they are,” she said. The county drug and alcohol center offers six levels of treatment: three in-patient and three out-patient.

The first in-patient treatment, detoxification, is the most intense and expensive. The second is short-term rehab, in which the addict goes to a center for 14 to 28 days; and the third is long-term rehab, where addicts stay at a treatment center for six months. Halfway through the long-term treatment they are able to hold employment, but must return to the center at night.

The money to pay for it comes from either the addict’s insurance or from the state. There isn’t enough to fill the need, Tolerico said. The center’s yearly budget is $545,000, with administration accounting for only $55,000.

In addition to Tolerico and her assistant Cindy Matthews, the center has three full-time counselors, seven part-time counselors and four office staff members.

“We are a short-term residential drug and alcohol treatment center,” she said. “We can handle about 45 people in in-patient. Twenty-eight days is the norm for residential placements. Some adolescents get as much as 42 days.”

Most addicts begin in the out-patient program, which includes three levels: partial, out-patient and intensive out-patient.

A recovering addict in partial treatment goes to work everyday, lives at home and goes to treatment after work. In intensive treatment a recovering addict attends the program at least 10 hours per week.

“We have group counseling sessions for them and also, where needed, individual sessions,” said Tolerico.

An example of intensive treatment would be a person charged with a second DWI offense. “We plug them in to the AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] or the NA [Narcotics Anonymous] community,” she said. “These programs can work wonders if the person wants to kick the habit hard enough.”

Drug addicts will do anything to get their fix, Tolerico said. Hold-ups and robberies are on the rise in Wayne County, according to local and state police.

“One drug store in Carbondale was robbed this week of the drug Oxycotin, the latest opiate drug of choice, and they didn’t touch $1,500 that was in the cash register,” said Tolerico.

Five years ago, the image of a heroin user was of somebody in the inner city shooting up in a burnt out building. Now, however, as Tolerico said, “Because heroin is so cheap and so strong and can be snorted, the addict can be from a conservative, middle-class community… someone with a wife, children, a house and a good job.”