DRUG TREATMENT CENTER FOR ALLIED URGED

Nurse: Quality Of Life Is At Issue

The Allied Drive neighborhood needs a drug treatment program operating
right there, Susan Corrado says.

"I believe that until they address drug and alcohol problems, a lot of
people here are not going to be able to succeed," said Corrado, a
registered nurse who works with the residents of Madison's most challenged
neighborhood out of the "Wellness Center" in a converted apartment.

Drug dealing is a crime that has clung so stubbornly to the
poverty-strapped Allied Drive community that it has become almost emblematic.

And despite much-heralded commitments by the city of Madison and Dane
County to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, a year in to the
initiative, things aren't appreciably better.

Residents and landlords in recent weeks have pleaded with city officials to
deal with the drug dealing, shootings and other crimes that continue to
plague the neighborhood.

Madison police on Wednesday held a press conference to tell the community
just how many resources they've been devoting to combat crime - especially
drug-related crime - and how more resources are needed to overcome the
neighborhood's drug reputation.

Yet there is no treatment program there.

While the city provides policing and some community services, most social
services programs - like drug treatment are provided through Dane County,
which usually hires private agencies specializing in needed services to run
the programs.

Lynn Green, Dane County director of Human Services, said there's no
question some residents of the Allied Drive neighborhood need substance
abuse treatment. But her department's practice is not to locate programs in
a community because of the stigma associated with being seen going to a
drug treatment center.

"The fact that there is not a visible clinic or agency does not mean we
don't have things going on there," Green said.

She said the Allied Drive neighborhood has been the target of special
initiatives in the past year, including an outreach program for women users
through ARC Community Services, and beds at Tellurian UCAN's inpatient unit
designated for patients from Allied Drive.

Enis Ragland, an aide to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said a program in
Allied Drive sounded like a good idea. "In other neighborhoods the city has
redeveloped, these programs were organized by residents," he said.

"Someone who is recovering can draw in other people with the idea of 'I've
been were you are and pulled myself out - you can do the same."'

Robert Artis is himself a former drug user. Now a neighborhood activist,
Artis says a treatment program right in the neighborhood is exactly what
Allied Drive needs.

"I'm around people getting high and selling drugs every day of my life," he
said. "I have heard on several occasions people saying that that's what
this neighborhood needs to take a step forward."

"When you have to go five or six miles for treatment, it is going to get
tiresome standing out in the cold or the heat waiting for a bus, or trying
to get a ride or a taxi," said Artis.

Some people in the Allied Drive neighborhood - especially those immersed in
the drug culture - may seldom leave it for any reason, he said.

"There are people who don't leave this area for years at a time," he said.
"If you bring something like that into the community, you can show them how
to take steps to get out of the community."

He disputed Green's contention that being seen going for treatment would
carry a stigma, saying he heard congratulations and words of support when
he quit using.

"There's no way I see the neighborhood would be scorning people going for
treatment," he said.

Clinic at Wellness?: Corrado, a parish nurse in a program sponsored by
Oakwood Lutheran Homes Association, ministers to her clients holistically,
seeking to address physical, psychological and spiritual concerns.

A drug treatment clinic could be part of the Wellness Center, she said,
operating out of a space that already draws lots of people for lots of
different reasons.

Funding would be a challenge, she admitted.

The Wellness Center itself was nearly forced to close down this fall until
Oakwood convinced the city to match its $14,000 grant for next year's
operations. The rest of the operating funds will be made up by Allied
Partners, a network of communities of faith that has supported the center
and other programs in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood residents are desperate for change, said Corrado, who has
worked there some 16 months.

"I think of this as a very discouraged neighborhood," she said. "I see an
awful lot of people who have low self-esteem, low problem-solving skills,
low relationship skills. Many people have little education or are not literate.

"It all impacts on the ability to hold a job, maintain relationships, and
utilize services appropriately."

The stresses of poverty can fray the ability to shrug things off. It leads
to a tense neighborhood, Corrado said.

"There are some fragile egos that take offense easily. A look, a wrong word
and fight breaks out," she said.

Jack Tiffany, a member of Allied Partners, said that some of the
responsibility to raising funds for the Wellness Center probably will be
taken on by a new board of directors emerging out of the board for the
former Allied-Dunn's Marsh Neighborhood Center.

The neighborhood center is now a Boys and Girls Club, which is building a
new center to open early next year.

"That new board will take on a coordinating role in the future," Tiffany said.

Corrado said it is frustrating to see the investments made by the city and
the county and realize that seems nothing is changing in the neighborhood.

But outside investments can't make the change happen.

"I believe the change has to come from the neighborhood itself," she said.