Post by Moon Seeker on Jun 6, 2008 14:53:05 GMT -5
Native American men gain recovery center
By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • June 5, 2008
Blue Thunder Lodge, a new state-funded residential facility for Native American men coming out of drug- or alcohol-abuse treatment programs, has its grand opening today.
The facility's opening is a rare expansion of services, as the federal government plans to cut its drug and alcohol prevention funding in half during the next year.
"The focus of this house is to help people transition back into their communities after undergoing treatment," said Collette Stinar, prevention specialist for Gateway Community Services. "This will allow them to live in a chemical-free, structured environment."
The reconverted home is designed to provide communal living for eight men ages 18 and up for six to nine months, while providing substance abuse out-treatment, training in life skills, and Native American cultural programs, such as sweat lodges and talking circles.
Residents will be expected to work during the day or the evening and receive substance-abuse counseling at Gateway during their off hours. Their first month's rent will be $250, jumping to $365 a month thereafter.
Learning life skills will ease that transition.
"Many of these people have not had parents teaching them the things most of us take for granted," house manager Don Fish said. "I asked one of the residents to bring some meat up from the freezer and cook it up, but he didn't know how, so I had to teach him some basic cooking skills — and I'm not that great a cook myself."
Fish said that training in life skills could include cooking, cleaning, household chores, filling out applications and applying for a job.
"I'll also teach the religious aspects — ceremonies and rituals — to help them adapt to this world," Fish said. "One day will be designated a cultural day, a day of doing sweats or picking sage with me."
The Blue Thunder Lodge is part of the Regional Treatment Expansion Consortium, a $4 million chemical dependency treatment program funded by the 2007 Legislature through the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Overseen by the Boyd Andrew Community Services organization in Helena, the consortium will provide seven long-term residential centers for low-income residents around the state.
The White Sky Hope Center on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation will also specialize in Native American clients. Two centers, one at the Rimrock Foundation in Billings and the other at the Elkhorn Treatment Center in Boulder, will provide a more intense treatment program. There will also be residential centers in Miles City, Bozeman and Kalispell.
"Treatment works," said Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who fought for the consortium. "These centers will provide a stable environment for those who desperately need help to battle their addictions."
However, the federal government is cutting back its funding, Stinar said.
She said the methamphetamine enforcement and cleanup, weed and seed, drug courts, residential substance-abuse treatment, and prescription-drug monitoring programs are all at risk.
"These grant programs collectively received more than $150 million in FY08," she wrote in a Powerpoint presentation. "It has been proposed to consolidate them into a (competitive) grant program that has been proposed to be funded at $80 million."
In testimony last month before the House Committee on the Interior, deputy director Robert G. McSwain of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services testified that the president's budget request would cut billions of dollars from his agency.
"The overall budget request for all HHS discretionary programs is a decrease of $2.2 billion, or 3 percent, below the enacted FY2008 consolidated appropriations funding level," said McSwain, adding that the Indian Health Service would lose $21 million and the Alcohol and Substance Abuse program would be cut $11.3 million.
"The budget also continues to propose elimination of the Urban Indian Health program (which was funded at $34.5 million in FY2008), as the beneficiaries of this program have access to other health care in the urban areas where they reside," McSwain said.
Judy Kolar, executive director of Gateway Community Services, said it's too early to predict yet how next year's federal budget will turn out.
"We've had stagnant funding for the past five to seven years, so we aren't able to offer payment and benefit packages that would be competitive with other agencies," Kolar said. "And with the increased costs of running a business, it's been hard just to hold even.
"I don't think we'll lose any personnel, but we won't be able to add any, so there may be an increased waiting time for our services," she said.
Reach Tribune Projects Editor Eric Newhouse at 791-1485, 800-438-6600 or enewhouse@greatfallstribune.com
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Blue Thunder Lodge grand opening today
Here's the agenda for today's grand opening of the Blue Thunder Lodge, 1100 8th Ave. N.
1-1:10 p.m.,opening prayer by Don Fish
1:15-1:25 p.m., welcome by Judy Kolar, executive director, and Jim Gamell, board president of Gateway Community Services
1:30-1:45 p.m., welcome by Montana Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger
1:45-2 p.m., ribbon cutting with the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce
2-2:30 p.m., press conference with Joan Cassidy, Chemical Dependency Bureau chief; Curt Weiler, Montana state meth officer; Mike Ruppert, CFO of Boyd Andrew Community Services; Sue Rajacich, RTEC program director; and Kolar.
2:30-4 p.m.,open house and tours
www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/NEWS01/806050302/1002
By ERIC NEWHOUSE • Tribune Projects Editor • June 5, 2008
Blue Thunder Lodge, a new state-funded residential facility for Native American men coming out of drug- or alcohol-abuse treatment programs, has its grand opening today.
The facility's opening is a rare expansion of services, as the federal government plans to cut its drug and alcohol prevention funding in half during the next year.
"The focus of this house is to help people transition back into their communities after undergoing treatment," said Collette Stinar, prevention specialist for Gateway Community Services. "This will allow them to live in a chemical-free, structured environment."
The reconverted home is designed to provide communal living for eight men ages 18 and up for six to nine months, while providing substance abuse out-treatment, training in life skills, and Native American cultural programs, such as sweat lodges and talking circles.
Residents will be expected to work during the day or the evening and receive substance-abuse counseling at Gateway during their off hours. Their first month's rent will be $250, jumping to $365 a month thereafter.
Learning life skills will ease that transition.
"Many of these people have not had parents teaching them the things most of us take for granted," house manager Don Fish said. "I asked one of the residents to bring some meat up from the freezer and cook it up, but he didn't know how, so I had to teach him some basic cooking skills — and I'm not that great a cook myself."
Fish said that training in life skills could include cooking, cleaning, household chores, filling out applications and applying for a job.
"I'll also teach the religious aspects — ceremonies and rituals — to help them adapt to this world," Fish said. "One day will be designated a cultural day, a day of doing sweats or picking sage with me."
The Blue Thunder Lodge is part of the Regional Treatment Expansion Consortium, a $4 million chemical dependency treatment program funded by the 2007 Legislature through the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
Overseen by the Boyd Andrew Community Services organization in Helena, the consortium will provide seven long-term residential centers for low-income residents around the state.
The White Sky Hope Center on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation will also specialize in Native American clients. Two centers, one at the Rimrock Foundation in Billings and the other at the Elkhorn Treatment Center in Boulder, will provide a more intense treatment program. There will also be residential centers in Miles City, Bozeman and Kalispell.
"Treatment works," said Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who fought for the consortium. "These centers will provide a stable environment for those who desperately need help to battle their addictions."
However, the federal government is cutting back its funding, Stinar said.
She said the methamphetamine enforcement and cleanup, weed and seed, drug courts, residential substance-abuse treatment, and prescription-drug monitoring programs are all at risk.
"These grant programs collectively received more than $150 million in FY08," she wrote in a Powerpoint presentation. "It has been proposed to consolidate them into a (competitive) grant program that has been proposed to be funded at $80 million."
In testimony last month before the House Committee on the Interior, deputy director Robert G. McSwain of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services testified that the president's budget request would cut billions of dollars from his agency.
"The overall budget request for all HHS discretionary programs is a decrease of $2.2 billion, or 3 percent, below the enacted FY2008 consolidated appropriations funding level," said McSwain, adding that the Indian Health Service would lose $21 million and the Alcohol and Substance Abuse program would be cut $11.3 million.
"The budget also continues to propose elimination of the Urban Indian Health program (which was funded at $34.5 million in FY2008), as the beneficiaries of this program have access to other health care in the urban areas where they reside," McSwain said.
Judy Kolar, executive director of Gateway Community Services, said it's too early to predict yet how next year's federal budget will turn out.
"We've had stagnant funding for the past five to seven years, so we aren't able to offer payment and benefit packages that would be competitive with other agencies," Kolar said. "And with the increased costs of running a business, it's been hard just to hold even.
"I don't think we'll lose any personnel, but we won't be able to add any, so there may be an increased waiting time for our services," she said.
Reach Tribune Projects Editor Eric Newhouse at 791-1485, 800-438-6600 or enewhouse@greatfallstribune.com
--------------
Blue Thunder Lodge grand opening today
Here's the agenda for today's grand opening of the Blue Thunder Lodge, 1100 8th Ave. N.
1-1:10 p.m.,opening prayer by Don Fish
1:15-1:25 p.m., welcome by Judy Kolar, executive director, and Jim Gamell, board president of Gateway Community Services
1:30-1:45 p.m., welcome by Montana Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger
1:45-2 p.m., ribbon cutting with the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce
2-2:30 p.m., press conference with Joan Cassidy, Chemical Dependency Bureau chief; Curt Weiler, Montana state meth officer; Mike Ruppert, CFO of Boyd Andrew Community Services; Sue Rajacich, RTEC program director; and Kolar.
2:30-4 p.m.,open house and tours
www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/NEWS01/806050302/1002