Your life is a wreck! You’ve lost your job and your marriage is falling apart….You’ve got two kids, you’re broke, and you’re addicted to drugs and alcohol. You desperately need help and are angry, afraid, confused, and feeling hopeless…but you do reach out for help.

     Unfortunately, however, you’re told something like this, “Sorry, but there’s no room at the inn…we’re booked up for months to come….”

     This scenario is not unrealistic and happens everyday as the crisis of inadequate funding for alcohol and drug abuse treatment continues to plague the state. People are reaching out for help, but none is available. Since the Oregon Health Plan was decimated a few years back, things have gone from bad to worse. A few residential and outpatient beds were restored in a special legislative session, but funding still lags behind what it was years ago. This is costing lives and dollars and affects the quality of life for all of us in Oregon.

     In our Women’s Treatment Program, there are many complications when qualifying a woman and her child or children for treatment. Kelli Burns, Willamette Family’s Residential Women’s Program Manager and Admissions Manager points out that our waiting list is approximately three months long. “The biggest obstacle is the precise funding for each bed and making certain our clients meet stringent requirements. If someone doesn't fit the mold exactly, they stay on the waiting list much longer.”

     “Another huge problem is that once a child is removed from her mom and placed in foster care, the client often no longer has the opportunity to parent-in-treatment (in our on-site Child Development Center) and the moms lose their Oregon Health Plan benefits, so they go back on the waiting list with no funding criteria… therefore we have fewer spots for them. The longer they wait, the longer the child is in foster care, bonding with another family and the less likely the child and mom will reunite. Its a vicious cycle that we are working hard with the Department of Human Services (D.H.S.) to break.”

 The needs are ever increasing with the growing "meth" epidemic affecting the state, but the means to treat those who need and want help are too often not available. Funding for the Oregon Health Plan has been capped for the “Standard Population” so that services are not available to many of those who desperately need it. Some funding is being restored in 2008, and the “Plus Population” is not capped, and that is good news.   However, the overall picture remains bleak and something needs to be done at the legislative level, where additional funding can be implemented.

     We’ve repeated this information before, in letters and reports over the years, but if we keep repeating it, maybe it will sink in, and lead to the savings of millions of dollars.

        “For every $1 spent on drug and alcohol abuse treatment taxpayers save $7.” (National Institute of Drug Abuse:  http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDA_Notes/ NNVol10N2/CAStudy.html) Other studies show similar results. Research commissioned by the State of Oregon and conducted by Michael Finigan, Ph.D., examined the utilization of criminal justice, unemployment, food stamps, child welfare, and health care services. The findings showed that for every $1 invested in addiction treatment, the State of Oregon saved $5.60 in associated costs. This includes reduction in criminal activity and reduced medical costs as well as other social services costs, including a reduction in child

abuse and spousal abuse. Results of this study are available online at: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/addiction/outcome-flyer.pdf.

     Legislators need to know these facts and act to use “our” monies wisely and in a responsible manner. One of the wisest things that can be done to save the state millions upon millions of dollars, is to adequately fund alcohol and drug treatment. The evidence is clear!

     A recent Marion County Jail Survey published by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission (January 2008)showed over 81% of  those incarcerated as having a problem with alcohol, over 62% problems with drugs (excluding methamphetamines), and over 72% showing methamphetamine as related to their current incarceration.

     The state of Oregon is not providing the funding necessary to treat these individuals, and thus the cycle of incarcerations and crimes against society will continue to escalate.

     What’s at stake is the quality of life for all of us living in Oregon, the lives of countless children, the lives of those struggling to overcome substance addiction, and millions upon millions of our dollars.

     Contact your state and national legislators and urge them to support adequate funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs. Go to the following website and type in your zip code and you will then be given contact information for your state and U.S. legislators, including email addresses: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/home.htm.

 Just one E.R. visit can
cost up to $1,000
or
$1,000 could pay for 6
months of outpatient
addictions treatment

Which do you think
would be the best investment?

...See what the experts say
when they review the cost-benefit
analyses…

           From the “Oregon Research Brief on Addiction
               Treatment Effectiveness.” online at http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/addiction/outcome-flyer.pdf
 

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Notes from the Director's Desk

Family Reunion Project

Thank you Chambers Family

Spotlight on Staff

McKay Family Challenge

Kelley Foundation

Higher Ed and Willamette Family