Money needed for drug treatment in Pike
BY MARY MUSIC
STAFF WRITER
July 4, 2007

In an area where drug abuse is rampant, a treatment facility has empty beds.

Officials are quick to praise WestCare Kentucky for its residential substance abuse treatment facility in Ashcamp, but the praise and financial support doesn't fill the budgeting needs for treatment services.

WestCare Director Erdil Looney reported at a recent UNITE Pike meeting that “people are begging to get into” the organization's Ashcamp facility, but WestCare can't financially support staff needed to care for additional residents.

The non-profit organization provides a therapeutic community to people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and it offers continuous care with outpatient services after clients leave the facility. Clients receive substance abuse counseling and treatment, a place to stay and meals as they learn how to live without their addictions.

The 92-bed facility, licensed for 72 beds, has funding available for staff to support only 45 clients and has more than 200 people on the waiting list.

The average stay in the 90-day treatment program is around 110 days, said WestCare Vice President Jennifer Noland, and at least 95 percent of the clients are unable to pay for services that cost $100 per person per day.

When WestCare sought to open the Ashcamp facility, it began with around $1.5 million in state and federal funds that has since been depleted, Noland said. For this fiscal year, the state legislature funds $482,000 for WestCare and she said it costs about $1.2 million to operate the facility to serve clients in 45 beds.

WestCare also receives in-kind donations, like supplies, from charitable organizations and businesses and it does qualify to receive Operation UNITE vouchers to fund treatment for some qualifying clients.

Noland said the non-profit organization may have to start relying on donations and seek ways to get clients to pay, at least partially, for service.

UNITE Pike is urging local governments to financially assist WestCare, but local governments say the support is there and other funding sources should be utilized.

UNITE Pike Chairman Ken Trivette, who wants to get additional funding for substance abuse treatment in Pike County, said there's no reason the city or county can't put aside funds to support the Ashcamp facility.

“Our local governments need to be more involved in treatment,” Trivette said. “It astounds me to learn that we have empty beds.”

When questioned about providing financial support for substance abuse treatment, county and city officials point out what has already been done.

The Pike County Fiscal Court has approved $217,000 in future coal severance money to turn the abandoned Lookout Elementary into a women's treatment facility for WestCare, but coal severance tax money can't be used to fund salaries for substance abuse counselors. Fiscal court members also appropriated more than $700,000 for the Pikeville Medical Center's detox program, which serves hundreds of people with inpatient, outpatient and juvenile substance abuse services.

As part of the contract WestCare signed when it took over operations of the homeless shelter, the city of Pikeville assists the homeless shelter with $60,000 annually. Although the city doesn't designate funding for treatment at the Ashcamp facility, clients there often move into or use programs at the homeless shelter when they complete the treatment program.

City Manager Donovan Blackburn says the city provides its financial part for substance abuse treatment by funding law enforcement programs and officers and by providing infrastructure, industry, recreation, housing and improving the quality of life in Pike County - things that encourage people to continually improve their own lives rather than getting depressed and turning to substance abuse.

The city's “jar isn't always full,” he said, and WestCare and UNITE should seek funding opportunities through other venues.

“I think the county and the city have contributed to multiple, multiple, multiple programs in order to support the fight against the drug problem in our area,” Blackburn said. “There are other organizations, grants. They need to look at federal funding, state funding or pharmaceutical programs.”

Blackburn said the Big Sandy Area Development District, the governor's office and Congressman Hal Rogers, who worked to organize UNITE, should “truly unite” and seek funding sources for treatment.

“I think Hal Rogers can get more funding from the federal government, but we need to see federal, state and local funds all matched in order to see these programs succeed,” said District Judge Kelsey Friend, who serves on WestCare Kentucky's board of directors.

WestCare Kentucky has applied for a $25 million multi-state grant to raise the bed capacity at Ashcamp, Friend said, but problems with keeping enough counselors on board for treatment after the women's facility is completed will continue.

Rogers has appropriated $33.1 in federal funds for regional UNITE initiatives over the past four years.

According to Operation UNITE's tax statements, as reported through Guidestar, the organization spent $280,568 in the 2004 fiscal year for drug court expenses and no funds were allocated on the form for treatment. The tax statements also show that Operation UNITE spent $1.1 million for drug court programs during the 2005 fiscal year, while spending only $3,788 for treatment. The organization's treatment budget grew during the 2006 fiscal year to an allotment of more than $1.5 million with an additional $900,000 funding drug courts in the region.

UNITE Communications director Dale Morton said there is no genuine way to determine the actual amount of funds that UNITE gives for treatment. Funds are disbursed to UNITE coalitions, he said, pointing out that UNITE's total treatment expense in the 2005 fiscal year topped $1.3 million, or 25.2 percent of the budget and 29.6 percent, or $9.4 million of the organization's 2006 budget.

WestCare has also received more than $50,000 from UNITE-led fundraisers over the past two years, Morton said.

“WestCare has been a big boost to treatment,” he said. “What they're doing is phenomenal over there.”

Trivette asked UNITE Pike's new coordinator, Amber Campbell, to investigate whether more than $634 million in fines imposed in May on OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma can be used to help fund substance abuse treatment in Pike County. The allocation of the fines in the criminal case has been designated for several organizations and programs, but no funds have been designated specifically for substance abuse treatment.

The Pike County fiscal court has publicized its consideration of suing the drug manufacturer.

UNITE Pike holds monthly meetings at 5 p.m. at the Pikeville City Hall on the third Thursday of every month. This month's meeting, however, has been canceled in preparation for July Jam 2007, a Christian rock concert that will be hosted on July 21 at the Eastern Kentucky Expo Center.

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