INC NEWS - Rehab program is model for N.C. (Herald-Sun)

[Caleb Southern]

Rehab program is model for N.C.

BY JIM SHAMP : The Herald-Sun
jshamp at heraldsun.com
Dec 7, 2005 : 10:09 pm ET

DURHAM -- North Carolina's top health official paid a visit Wednesday to
Durham's nationally respected two-year drug rehab program in hopes that
TROSA's success can inform other mental health and rehab programs throughout
the state.

Carmen Hooker Odom, the state's Secretary of Health & Human Services, spent
about two hours at the agency's expanding James Street campus, learning
about the structure and operation of the 11-year-old addiction treatment
program, whose familiar name is an acronym for Triangle Residential Options
for Substance Abusers.

TROSA was the brainstorm of Kevin McDonald, a former heroin addict who
recognized the need for a long-term residential substance abuse treatment
program in Durham. He and other staff members and residents of the private,
nonprofit organization explained why this kind of program is widely accepted
among addiction specialists as the best model for dealing with the complex
physical, spiritual and mental morass that routinely demands crime,
indignity and death from its victims.

"No one chooses to be an addict," McDonald told Hooker Odom.

Duke addictions specialist Paul Nagy, who provides medical support to TROSA,
and fellow Duke physician Ashwin Patkar, told Hooker Odom that jail and
other short-term detoxification options are inadequate to deal with the
complex problems of drug addiction.

Hooker Odom said the state is encountering a serious quandary over how to
treat young people -- especially girls younger than 18 and therefore not
eligible for TROSA help.

One woman who was introduced as a graduate of the TROSA program, identified
only as "Jessie" to protect her identity, said she started using drugs at
age 13, advancing from alcohol and marijuana to cocaine, heroin and crack
cocaine.

"Jessie" told Hooker Odom she was confined to a locked youth facility and
escaped. In fact, she said, none of several rehab programs worked for her,
and she even considered leaving TROSA. But for reasons she couldn't
articulate, she ultimately stayed with TROSA until she was able to graduate.
She's now earning an associate's degree at Durham Technical Community
College.

Graduation from TROSA requires the successful completion of two-year
programs in which participants help support the agency and learn skills and
responsibility while working in TROSA jobs. They include staff jobs to keep
the organization running as well as out-of-agency work on construction,
moving and lawn-care crews -- and staffing the group's annual Christmas tree
lots.

TROSA entrants without high school diplomas earn GEDs while in the program,
and those with diplomas get more advanced educational options. Everyone must
be involved in the career programs contributing to TROSA's survival to learn
lessons of discipline and satisfaction from participating in teams while
producing something meaningful and useful in the "real world" of sobriety.

MaryAnn Black, former chairwoman of the Durham Board of County Commissioners
and director of community affairs at Duke University, also attended the
session as Hooker Odom's friend. Dan Glaser, vice chairman of the TROSA
board and chief financial officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North
Carolina, was also among participants in the tour.