Isn’t it a shame, that with all the money that Congress is going to spend, primarily to get the economy going, that someone couldn’t have found a little money for New Directions Treatment Center. It probably would not have cost much to keep it open, and obviously, it has helped save some lives through the years.
Infusing money into drug treatment not only helps the economy with jobs, the savings in health and incarceration are potentially huge.
It is doubtful that any economic impact study was done of New Directions, but it probably would have shown contribution to the local work force and savings for the city and state government.
There are 23 million drug addicts – cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs and pot are predominantly the popular drugs.
Where are they all to go if we can’t even keep one tiny rehab open?
“When the New Directions Treatment Center closed its doors in late 2007, families and individuals with addiction problems faced even more challenges.
New Directions offered the only long-term, residential alcohol and drug treatment center in this part of the state. Patients lived and worked at the facility in Monitor, about two miles east of Lafayette.
Lafayette’s Mike Timmons, a recovering addict, said that since the New Directions center went bankrupt, “there’s nothing like it around here” to help his addicted son.
The father said he is still grieving for another son who died of a drug overdose in February — five days after leaving prison.
“I used to work at New Directions, and I can’t believe it’s gone,” he said. “In the past 30 days, my son has needed help for a drug addiction. There is nothing.
“I tried Home with Hope (in Lafayette), but they said it was too soon since he used. They didn’t want him to go into withdrawal there.”
Timmons said he is taking care of his son at home.
“I’m just sitting on him,” he said. “He’s doing it the hard way.”
He said New Directions was one of the few residential treatment centers in the United States that…”
http://www.jconline.com/article/20091003/NEWS/910030339
