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Recovery in the News
Opinion: Finally, real action on recovery homes
Richard Buckman and Mary Ann Maddock
Newsday
February 11, 2008
Spitzer's call for funds for affordable housing deserves backing. On LI homes are critical for addicts in treatment.
New York State may be on the brink of a unique and historic achievement: an unprecedented investment in building and expanding housing for many of the thousands of New Yorkers who are recovering from addiction.
There was little or no mention of this fact in the governor's feel-good State of the State address last month. And after a year of bitter infighting, wild charges and multiple inquiries and investigations, the prevailing wisdom is that nothing productive is occurring in Albany. This may be true in other areas, but not when it comes to the world of recovery.
This is a critical issue for Long Island in particular. Last month state officials notified a fraudulent and abusive treatment center in Suffolk County that its license was to be revoked. And several years ago Long Island was the scene of two similar scandals.
In 2005 and 2006, under relentless pressure from Long Island CAN (Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods), the Quality Consortium of Suffolk County and the Long Island Recovery Association, the state shut down two of the worst providers of counseling and housing for people in recovery, Lake Grove Treatment Centers and Crossings Recovery Systems.
In both agencies, state investigators uncovered rampant waste, fraud and illegal activity - rather than helping people make the difficult journey toward recovery, they were putting lives at risk.
The most recent offender, Employee Assistance Resource Services, or EARS, operates a shadowy treatment center in Smithtown and has links to as many as 13 group homes throughout the county. Fortunately, the Smithtown center will most likely be closed, and most of the homes linked to it will be shut or downsized.
Now, after years of near-total neglect and indifference by the previous administration, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has taken three important steps to address this problem. The first was to appoint the capable Karen Carpenter-Palumbo as commissioner for the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS).
The second was the inclusion in last year's budget of $26.6 million in capital funding for new residential treatment slots in Nassau and Suffolk - an appropriate response to the closing of dozens of dreadful homes affiliated with Lake Grove, Crossings and others over the past several years.
The third is the governor's recent proposal to create a $300-million state fund for building affordable housing, including housing linked to treatment. Only time will tell whether the plan will survive the bruising budget battle that is sure to come. But the governor is right to earmark some of this funding, if secured, for housing those engaged in a life-and-death struggle with alcohol or other drugs.
This is the right approach. While pushing out bad apples is an important first step, the need for well-run recovery homes on Long Island is enormous - and on the rise.
Some outpatient treatment centers in Suffolk County report waiting lists as long as six weeks. Many of those seeking treatment, once they do get admitted to programs, have no place to live during the recovery period. For some, this is the equivalent of a death sentence. Those seeking recovery need a safe, structured place to live while they go through treatment. They need to be surrounded by others in recovery who will support and encourage them.
The staff who work in these centers and homes must be committed to the mission of recovery, not to the maximization of profit or the exploitation of those who are most vulnerable. And these homes should be brought under the authority of OASAS, as greater oversight would prevent predatory operators like EARS from getting into the business in the first place.
New York State has an opportunity to become an innovator in recovery. Addiction hits every community in our state - urban and suburban, every ethnic group, every economic class. Instead of keeping the process of recovery in the shadows and allowing organizations like Lake Grove and EARS to exploit those seeking to recover, New York could become a national and international leader in this critical field.
Some speculate that Spitzer may one day be known as an "education governor." We'd like to see him become the "recovery governor." We hope we'll see the same kind of leadership from the governor and the Legislature in 2008 and beyond that we saw this past year. Against all odds and with little fanfare, they are certainly off to a promising start.
Richard Buckman is a board member of the Long Island Recovery Association.
Mary Ann Maddock is a leader of Long Island CAN (Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods).
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.