Drug treatment faces dilemma

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

A group advising the state agency that oversees drug and alcohol treatment laid out a road map for meeting new federal funding guidelines Thursday, but the agency's chief cautioned that moving forward will also require funding, and that's already scarce.

The group included officials from some of Nevada's 26 drug and alcohol treatment centers and Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Abuse staff. It was charged with looking at how to meet the federal government's upcoming requirement for providing data.

Funding will be contingent upon the success of the treatment efforts, and the assessment of the efforts will be based on the data.

Maria Canfield, chief of the bureau, said the group recommended adopting the federal government's own data system for meeting these requirements, which includes ways to keep track of such outcomes as whether students who took drugs have improved in school after getting help. Using the system would require every clinician helping an alcoholic or addict to have access to a computer.

The requirements are a good thing in the long run, said Theresa Lemus, head of an umbrella group that includes most of the state's treatment centers.

"It's good that they want to know their money is supporting something that works," Lemus said.

The problem is that many smaller outfits may have to choose between helping people or stretching their budgets to buy computers or train staff to use the system, she said.

"Nobody wants to take dollars out of serving people to fund data systems," Lemus said.

"But this will probably happen."

Historically, grants have been tied to such indicators as the number of people treated, but there hasn't been a consensus on how to show whether treatment is working or not. That has changed as research results have piled up over the last decade or so, Lemus said.

Currently, the state bureau that oversees drug and alcohol treatment manages an $11 million annual budget, about $8 million of which is from the federal government, Canfield said.

This is channeled to the state's treatment centers, which then help about 11,000 addicts and alcoholics a year -- or less than 20 percent of what is needed, Lemus said.

"We're near the top in terms of addiction statistics, but near the bottom in terms of funding to treat them," she added.

Federal funding and technical assistance will be key to implementing the new system, Canfield said. A deadline has not yet been set for putting the database in place, but treatment centers may have to be online in time for the next federal grant applications, which are due Oct. 1, she added.

Congress' indecision on the Department of Health and Human Services budget, the source of the grants for drug and alcohol treatment, is causing additional worries, she said. That budget is currently on what is called a continuing resolution, meaning Congress hasn't decided whether to keep it at present levels or raise it.

"If the budget isn't increased, that would put increased pressure on us and service providers, as well as any new providers," Canfield said.

Ronald Lawrence, chief executive officer of Community Counseling, a Las Vegas treatment center, said that meeting the new requirements will be difficult without help from the federal government.

"Those of us in the treatment trenches need funding (for this) ... we're working far over capacity as it is," he said.

Lemus, who is also director of development for Bristlecone Family Resources, a Reno-based treatment center, said that the new requirements have what she called a "good side," however.

"Anything we can do to decrease the stigma of people and families suffering addictions is positive," she said.

"And to be able to go to employers, or the Legislature, or anybody, and say, 'When treated, these people can recover and lead healthy, productive lives' will help achieve this," she said.