The Recovery Place Drug Rehab and Alcohol Treatment Center Welcomes New …
Lehmann comes to The Recovery Place with extensive leadership experience, having served as CEO and Executive Director with a number of inpatient and outpatient drug rehab and alcohol treatment facilities. These facilities specialized in providing …
Read more on PR Web (press release)

Lindsay Lohan Urged To Extend Stay In Rehab, Advised Not To Live With Her …
RadarOnline reports that the 27-year-old's treatment team at Cliffside Malibu has asked her to consider continuing her inpatient treatment because she's been making such good progress. Lohan, who is in rehab to avoid jail time after she pled no contest …
Read more on Huffington Post

Rochester Psychiatric Center to become forensic facility
Moving inpatient treatment to Buffalo could have an impact on residential referrals and visiting families. “We need to see, if this plan moves forward, if the state will be able to provide dollars to assist with any barriers we may encounter,” Plum …
Read more on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Watertown woman faces up to 6 years in prison for heroin sale try
Judge Kim H. Martusewicz will mandate her sentence be served in the prison system's Willard Drug Treatment Program. If an inmate completes the 90-day … 26 while she seeks inpatient substance abuse treatment. Matthew L. Mehaffy, 31, Watertown, …
Read more on WatertownDailyTimes.com

DGH adds space to treat mental illness, substance abuse
Eight additional inpatient beds allow Shore Behavioral Health to treat both psychiatric conditions and substance abuse disorders [JUMP]more effectively. It also allows for expansion of treatment to make up for closing of the Upper Shore Mental Health …
Read more on My Eastern Shore

Woman to serve 5 years in prison for probation violation
Instead, Judge Tim Bjorkman postponed it to allow Wright to enroll in an inpatient substance abuse treatment program in Rapid City. However, she failed to successfully complete treatment at Full Circle Behavior Management System. Reports Bjorkman read …
Read more on Daily Republic

No conflict found by Bergen County ethics board on appointee to county …
The hospital provides acute care, long-term inpatient psychiatric care and substance abuse treatment. It currently is operated by a private for-profit company that pays about $ 7 million-a-year in rent to the authority under a 19-year lease. With that …
Read more on NorthJersey.com

Alcohol and drug abuse treatment available at Adcare Hospital
Outpatient Detoxification Program combines alcohol and drug abuse treatment with medical supervision during withdrawal from alcohol and other drug abuse to achieve abstinence, and is offered at our Worcester Clinic. Specialty Groups are site specific.
Read more on WWLP 22News

Woman pleads to three theft charges, enters drug treatment
Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. said Snyder will remain behind bars until a bed is found for her in an inpatient drug treatment facility, where she will begin her assignment to the judicial diversion program. Snyder admitted stealing a woman's credit card …
Read more on Buffalo News

Business Notes June 16
Hawkins-Pankratz is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor. She has an AS in criminal justice from Colorado Technical University and a bachelor of arts degree psychology with a concentration in substance abuse from Argosy University. She was previously …
Read more on Brainerd Daily Dispatch

Research and Markets: 2013 U.S. Psychiatric & Substance Abuse Hospitals …
This industry comprises establishments known and licensed as psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals primarily engaged in providing diagnostic, medical treatment, and monitoring services for inpatients who suffer from mental illness or substance …
Read more on Business Wire (press release)

Man accused of trying to hire hitman sentenced to probation, mental health …
Gensler agreed to comply with mental health and substance abuse treatment plans, including 30 days of inpatient treatment, to start immediately after his jail discharge. He will also wear a GPS monitoring bracelet with exclusion zones for victims …
Read more on Herald & Review

Question by Emma: what are some ways to reduce homelessness?
i am writing a proposal on homelessness in richmond va. I am looking for some ways in which we could reduce or eliminate the homeless.

So far i can only think of 2 which are affordable housing and increase in employment rate.

i need two more ways of which we could potentially reduce the amount of homeless or eliminate it altogether

any suggestions would be helpful

Best answer:

Answer by rec4lms
I think that the first issue for you to tackle is to determine why they are homeless.

The issues that I deal with find that a significant percent of the homeless have mental health issues. The second issue (not as large as mental health issues in my experience) is that many people have issues with alcohol or drug abuse. (Many people can function while abusing alcohol/drugs but many can not.) The third issue is that people have no jobs, no money, no credit, and no resources to turn to when they are down and out.

The USA does a horrible job in dealing with mental health issues, with most of the mental health hospitals being defunded or closed. Unfortunately the response the government has taken is to wait for them to commit a crime and then incarcerate them. Thus, determine how many mental health facilities are in the Richmond area that help those who can not afford treatment. (The only place we use is Central State in Petersburg.) Also note that those with mental illness can not be compelled to take their medications without a court order. And I’ve never seen the court order someone to take medication unless they are incarcerated and need to be up for trial.

Alchohol and drug abuse is a completely different problem to deal with. It may be recreational, it may be escapist, or it may be addiction. Some will respond to treatment, especially if they want treatment. However, they have to want to improve. To paraphrase one person that I worked with, when they were taking drugs they felt that everything was perfect.

Lack of job/money/resources is both one of the worst situations but also one of the easiest one’s to directly handle. Note that I listed “resources.” A resource is anything that one person can use. This can include friends and family. Religion is also important in this because even though it is often bad mouthed in TV and movies however in reality church members stick together. Affordable housing is a good idea but often politics gets involved in a situation. Several years ago I was earning $ 19,000 a year, which is not very much. My roommates and I got kicked out of an apartment because a new company bought it and made it Section 8. The reasoning we were given was that we earned too much money. A lot of the rules and laws are kind of idiotic and often geared to the lowest common denominator. Try to improve yourself and you don’t get help, but don’t try and you get supported. (There are many who truly do need help because they have hit rock bottom but unfortunately a lot of people take advantage of that safety net.) My neighbor is a great example of this. Her husband passed away and she works three jobs to keep her kids and house. However, she could quit all three jobs and get federal money. There is no tapering off of assistance, either you get assistance or you get nothing and this makes it difficult because the money for assistance is often more than the money you can earn on your own.

So, I give you the following: 1) Improve Psychiatric Care for those who need it.
2) Increase alcohol and drug treatment options.
3) Rework the Section 8, Unemployment Benefits, and the Food Stamp/WIC programs. We can probably go for Medicaid also but I don’t deal with that all that much.

I know, Too Long Didn’t Read. I used to be positive and felt that I could help those that are less fortunate than I am, and that lead to a career into such. However, a lot of troubles have been brought on by their own problems. Sadly, trying to save the world may have made me jaded but I also feel that it has made me realistic: Some people can only help themselves and the current system works against those who are trying to improve their lot in life.

I hope that this helped.

Good luck.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Narconon Freedom Center Joins Albion Health Alliance Committee
Narconon is very pleased about the theme this year as it provides an opportunity to show the community the worldwide scope of the Narconon Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Program. For their Christmas tree, they have decided to design and handcraft a …
Read more on Midland Daily News

Plan emerges for Aspen detox center, treatment
… detox center and treatment services in the wake of the closure of a detox facility in Glenwood Springs and the coming shut-down of The Right Door, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Aspen that is scheduled to close its doors at the end of …
Read more on Aspen Times

When drug, alcohol and legal problems converge, Veterans Treatment Court …
Castillas, 53, is one of five veterans who completed the treatment program this year. He is currently finishing his sentence on Drug and Alcohol Probation and working part-time at Goodwill. "Now I wake up and I look forward to the day, and I am ready …
Read more on Evansville Courier & Press