U.S. NEEDS TO DO BETTER JOB OF HELPING ADDICTS

For some people, the best part of Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or New
Year's Day is the moment when it's finally over. It's not that they
don't love their families; it's just that their families need help
and they're not the ones who can give it.

For these people, memories of past holidays bring a lump to their
throats and a firm resolution to live through one more holiday season
with as few emotional bruises as possible.

And that's OK. Holidays are hard enough for them without the added
burden of feeling guilty over people and situations they cannot change.

No one wants to be mentally ill. No one dreams of being a drug addict
or an alcoholic when they grow up. No one marries a person they think
will divorce them. No one is thinking of the holidays when they
commit a crime that sends them to jail for years on end, nor do they
plan to die on Dec. 24 so they can ruin everyone's Christmas for the
rest of time. It just happens.

And for every person these things happen to, there's a whole family
who hurts right along with them. There are friends who throw up their
hands because they don't know what to do, relatives who are afraid to
include them in their holiday plans because they've been burned once
too often and kids who would rather hang out with their friends than
act their part in one more family disaster.

These people, all of them, need help, not because it's Christmastime
or because they have nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. They need help
because they are sick, they are addicted, they are lonely, they are
desperate -- not just for six weeks at the end of the year, but all
through the year. Mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse, prison
sentences, terminal illnesses, domestic violence and divorces take
their toll all year long.

But it is during the holidays, the season that most people look
forward to with joy and anticipation, that the lingering problems
that plague so many lives stand out in bold relief. At no time of the
year is the need for social services more apparent than during the holidays.

One of the greatest crimes against the American people over the last
decade has been the slow but steady tearing down of the safety net
that once existed to help people who find themselves in desperate situations.

During these years, largely due to cutbacks in federal and state
budgets, there has been a gradual shift in the national attitude of
how to deal with crime, substance abuse, mental illness and domestic
violence. These problems are still with us, and those suffering from
their consequences still need just as much help as they always have.

But our shift in attitude has resulted in the shutting down of almost
an entire network of adolescent treatment units, mental health care
units, substance abuse facilities and agencies specializing in
counseling and intervention.

The national attitude seems to have gone from, "What can we do to
help these people?" to "What can we do to get rid of these people?"
It is important to face this shift in attitude honestly if we are
ever to get our social services network back on track.

Somewhere along the way we were fooled into believing that many
mentally ill patients could simply be discharged from the hospital,
given medications and put out into the general population. The result
is that the largest mental health care facility in the United States
is now the Los Angeles county jail.

And for those who are interested, you can stop wondering what
happened to the war on drugs. It's over and we lost.

Our best line of defense against drug abuse, the excellent network of
treatment facilities that once dotted the country, have almost all
been shut down for lack of funding. Insurance companies who don't
want to pay for treatment have been allowed to skate from under this
important responsibility.

Again, it's the jails that have taken up the slack. Addicts and
alcoholics who need medical detox and counseling are instead thrown
into a cell and left to sweat it out on their own. Some die in their
cells for lack of medical care.

Then there are the domestic violence cases where family counseling
could make all the difference. Here again, many victims are without
resources and find themselves dumped into shelters, at a loss to
figure out how to help themselves.

It is at this time of year, during the holiday season, that America
most likes to call itself a Christian nation. We're fond of helping
victims of disasters from one end of the globe to the other. We hold
bake sales and clothing drives and save our change in little offering boxes.

But we've dropped the ball when it comes to our own. We have
forgotten the truth that charity begins at home.

Instead, we've decided that what the mentally ill, the addicted, the
poor with few coping skills and the crisis-prone, suicidal outcasts
who can't seem to find their way in the world really need is shock
therapy. Put them in jail. Maybe that'll sober them up.

And of course, in order to make it really effective, they should be
"no frills" jails. After all, why should those of us who are making
it pay for prison perks for deadbeats?

The story goes that the One whose birthday we celebrate this season
hung out with the dispossessed, drunks, thieves and whores.

Maybe a better way to say thanks to him would be to stop sending
those he came to help to jail and start helping them to get their
lives back again instead.