Young People Especially at Risk

What I find so disconcerting as I read about the myriad of issues with drug and alcohol treatment is that young people are so much more vulnerable to these flaws. It is a serious failure of our health care system.

This essay, Radical Transformation of Treatment,  reminds me that Gary's son is not alone in having been failed by our treatment programs. During my experience with one of the marginal treatment centers of the 90's, a young teenager from private school in St. Louis came to this treatment community. After a few days, she left because it was, well, really weird -- EST Lite. Where we were usually charged with supervising our fellow recovering addicts, this time the leader said to just let her go. She was dead within a few days.

A friend's son was a successful graduate of a recovery boarding school, but the after care for these kids or young adults is so inadequate. Only one high school in the large metropolitan area where I live has an addictions coordinator for their 1000 students. A few high schools have recovery meetings on the premises, but most have no support at all. One of the critical pieces of my recovery story is that I had access to "young people" meetings. My friend's son died after a return to drinking.

The ranches and boarding schools, hospitals and recovery communities, all have broadly good intentions. They are certified or licensed at a minimal level, like daycare centers, and many other allied educational and therapeutic organizations, but there is a lot of room for fraud, incompetence, and abuse. They must be better regulated, run based on evidence-based therapies and sound medical care.