[NYAPRS Enews] People In Recovery Urge Lawmakers To Undo Cut

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Congratulations to our brothers and sisters in the
substance abuse recovery community who, in tandem with the mental health
community's history of grassroots advocacy action, got on the map in a
big way earlier this week with their historic first ever Albany
Legislative Day. Their efforts, which were well supported by the work of
our own Chacku (formerly Mat) Mathai and Matt Canuteson, were referenced
several times at yesterday's mental hygiene budget hearing in Albany.
Imagine a day when both our communities join force in collective action!

 

People In Recovery Urge Lawmakers To Undo Cut

By Cara Matthews  Albany Watch (Gannett News Service)  February 3, 2010

 

   Friends of Recovery, a new coalition of people in recovery from
addiction, their families and allies, held its first lobby day at the
Capitol this week. Members urged lawmakers to restore $1.5 million to
the state budget for the ongoing Recovery Community Center Initiative.
Gov. David Paterson has proposed scaling back $2.7 million that was
originally planned for recovery services by 2011 to $500,000, which
would only be enough to support three or four centers.

 

   The lobby day marked the end of a "long era of anonymity while
decisions have been made without us," said Chacku Mathai, treasurer of
Friends of Recovery-FOR-NY-and deputy director of the state Association
of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.  Mathai, who grew up in the
Rochester area, is in recovery from addiction.

 

   FOR-NY members believe the state needs more recovery-oriented care, a
different model than the traditional crisis-oriented acute care.
Recovery community centers provide support groups, housing and
employment assistance, and other services. There are no limits on care,
which is how the acute-care system works, and they provide a safety net
that acute-care facilities cannot, members said.

 

   Although the state continues to face fiscal problems, this is not the
time to cut recovery services, Mathai said. The state Office of
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services estimates that about 2.5 million
New Yorkers have a substance-abuse problem or gambling addiction.

 

      Jackson Davis, project director of the Recovery Network of New
York in Syracuse, said the network has recovery centers in Syracuse and
Rochester. The group, whose umbrella organization is the Center for
Community Alternatives, recently had to close down a center in Albany
due to lack of funds. The recovery-center model embraces people's
differences, he said. For example, it can take years for something to
connect for someone and lead them toward recovery.

 

   "What's so unique about recovery centers is they understand there are
many pathways for recovery," said Davis, who has been clean for 19
years.

 

   The centers were originally told they would be getting state money in
October 2009, Davis said. That got pushed back to December, and now it
may not happen until the end of this year. Meanwhile, each site serves
between 400 and 500 people a year, he said.

 

   Tempest Saldivar of Syracuse volunteers at the recovery center in her
city by helping new members and teaching computer skills, and she has
gone back to college. "It helps me stay clean. I go to two meetings a
day there-10 a.m. and 2 p.m.," she said.

 

   Delane Riley said she was in a rehabilitation center in Syracuse in
2005 and was kicked out of the program for a rules violation. Someone
introduced her to the Recovery Network. Having turned her life around,
she is now an outreach specialist for the Syracuse center. She can
identify with people who are seeking help with recovery because she has
been there herself, she said.

 

   "When I see a person come through that door, their story is probably
my story," she said.

 

http://statepolitics.lohudblogs.com/ 

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