THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502160392
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Norfolk Community Hospital soon will open a day-treatment program for pregnant drug addicts who live in public housing.
The program, to open within two months, will serve 20 crack and heroin addicts at any time, Phillip Brooks, hospital president, said Monday.
Services will include detoxification, counseling, development of educational and job skills, and transportation to related programs. Length of stay will vary by individual cases.
``This will enhance what we're already doing'' because it will be near several public housing neighborhoods, said Tony Crisp, substance abuse services director for the Norfolk Community Services Board.
The program comes after years of effort by a consortium of social service and health agencies to establish a residential program for pregnant addicts and addicts who are new mothers.
``Ideally we'd like to have a 24-hour residential program, but the funds are just not available right now,'' Brooks said.
The number of pregnant addicts and addicted young mothers in public housing is not known.
But Sue Baumann, a drug counselor for the Community Services Board, said she believes the problem is growing.
Baumann said she averages 40 cases at any time, nearly all from public housing. ``It's just getting out of hand,'' she said.
Addicted women often say that breaking the habit is harder when they stay or return to neighborhoods where drug use is common.
Housing officials acknowledge the problem but hope that the community hospital program will at least provide ``safe shelter'' for much of the day.
``The disease is such that you have to be fighting it all the time,'' said Vera Franklin, director of residential initiatives for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. ``We're hoping the shelter will give them some refuge from that. . . . The shelter will be available 11 hours a day to protect them against that.
``And at least they'll know they have someplace to go the next morning to get out of their situations.''
Pregnant addicts and addicted young mothers sometimes have been reluctant to seek treatment, fearing that they would be arrested, evicted from their homes or their other children taken away by government social services.
Some, risking their health and that of their babies, do not seek help until it's time to give birth.
Franklin said the program is developing agreements with other agencies, so the women will not be punished for seeking help.
The housing authority will not evict any women who volunteer for the program. ``We're trying to remove the barriers,'' Franklin said.
However, the agency will require the women to pass random drug-screening tests, she said.
The day-treatment program will be funded by a $192,000 grant under a federal drug-elimination program for public housing neighborhoods. The money is good only through June 1996; by that time, the local consortium hopes to have developed other financial sources.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ABUSE DRUG TREATMENT by CNB