Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9411170123
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YOUTH COUNSELORS SAY PROGRAMS NEED MONEY

"Most everything we do, we have to go out and scrape together money," said Suellen Hodges, parent volunteer coordinator for the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition.

"We could use ongoing funding. Funds have gotten thinner and thinner every year."

The task force, born of legislation passed during February's General Assembly session, is studying barriers that state localities face in supporting early intervention programs. The group is charged with developing recommendations on ways the state can move program funds to communities more efficiently.

The task force will submit an interim report next year to Gov. George Allen and the 1995 General Assembly session and a final report in two years to the governor and the 1996 General Assembly.

"Prevention and early intervention deserve at least as much attention, consideration and funding as the abolition of parole and the building of prisons," said Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, task force chairman.

Wednesday's public hearing at the Blue Ridge Community Services office in Roanoke was the second of three statewide on recommendations for legislative action.

"We urge you to help fund staff for community efforts," said Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Philip Trompeter, chairman of the Roanoke Valley Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council.

"We need staff to facilitate work we know best how to do," he said.

Steve Tomasik, prevention services supervisor for the Roanoke Department of Social Services, said that most funding for community services goes to mandated programs, leaving only a small amount for prevention and early intervention.

Task force member Del. Arthur R. Giesen Jr., R-Waynesboro, asked Tomasik if government would be well-advised to hold funding for existing programs the same or decrease it and move money into prevention and intervention services.

"Yes," Tomasik said, noting that some $60,000 to $100,000 is spent per child in state-supported treatment programs.

"Use that funding to identify some of these problems in youth early on," he said. "It would be much better served meeting the needs of children and families."

Bob Lynn, director for Mt. Regis-Changes, an outpatient clinic for treatment of drug and alcohol abuse, urged support of student assistance counselors. They work in the middle and high schools with students who are having trouble with substance abuse.

"We struggle year to year with funding," Lynn said. "We need to have them as a line of defense. All research shows that the longer you wait, the harder it is to solve it."

"In New York, there is an [Alcoholics Anonymous] group of 7- to 11-year-olds,'' he said. "We have the same problems with the same age crowd here in the Roanoke Valley."