Georgia County Government - October 2008 - (Page 40) UNION COUNTY continued from page 39 With all this in mind, it was regarded as a miraculous windfall when Union County became one of 11 jurisdictions in the nation in 2005 to garner a threeyear, $1.5 million Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant to battle the scourge of methamphetamine addiction. Today, three years later, the county reports that that endowment turned into a bona fide miracle for the communities in and around Union County. Reports Paris and his colleagues in the New Hope substance abuse treatment center, “We’ve not only made our citizens aware of the dangers of the drug and reduced its grip on communities and citizens, but have provided a facility where they can receive quality treatment.” What follows is the remarkable story of how this happened. Watkins, a Ph.D. psychologist with state credentials, was seeking a Georgia county that would meet the criteria to qualify for a federal grant that would permit New Hope’s treatment program, then operating in Gainesville, Dawsonville, and Cumming, to further expand in north Georgia. Thanks to New Hope, there were substance abuse treatment programs meeting community needs south of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But, according to Project Director Kim Waters-Rose, there were very few treatment centers on the northern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here, a facility was badly needed. “Union County fit into the treatment program protocol for the grant, and fit the needed model perfectly,” Watkins says. A partnership was born when, in a unique agreement, a portion of Union County’s former government annex was designated the site of the latest New Hope treatment center. The center was under the direction of Troy Beaver, clinic director, who had worked for 25 years in the mental health and substance abuse field, including in emergency rooms within the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where he’d seen the worst effects of meth addiction. That experience, he says, as well as his experience with Vietnam veterans, motivated him to become a drug abuse counselor. A New Hope administrator, Waters-Rose would serve as project director, with the responsibility of keeping the program in line with the federal grant they were vying for. When the $1.5 million SAMHSA grant was secured, it made national news. Union County was one of only 11 local governments nationally to garner one of these special endowments to develop, open and operate a drug treatment center which would serve the needs of communities on the far side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The clinic was established in Blairsville, in the former government annex, and those in charge, including Commissioner Paris, had high hopes that it would not just treat regional addicts, but also help them get their lives on track – and just as crucially – divert them from the criminal justice system, where, if incarcerated, such individuals usually do not get the help they truly need. For New Hope’s part, sustaining effective drug abuse treatment in North Georgia depended on the group’s branching out to cover further territory, in the state’s high country, Watkins says. In Union County, there was an undisputed need. It was estimated some 300 people would be treated and rehabilitated, hopefully to forsake the drug in favor of a better life. Thus far, this overwhelmingly successful program, however, has treated almost 1,000 individuals – more than three times the number originally anticipated. Putting Treatment Where It Was Needed Methamphetamine was not a problem limited to the North Georgia Mountains. Meth addiction, trafficking and manufacturing was a burden in many parts of Georgia. Here, however, there was a need for a treatment facility; the kind people had access to in West Georgia and in the region just south of Georgia’s mountains. In 2004 founder of New Hope addiction treatment centers in Forsyth and Hall counties, Tom Success Beyond Expectations “We believe we’ve stemmed the methamphetamine problem in the North Georgia Mountains to a great degree,” says Beaver, New Hope clinic director. “The number of meth addicts New Hope saw in Blairsville, when the clinic first opened, was some 90 percent of all who sought treatment. Today, only three years later, the percentage of meth addicts coming into the clinic is less than 10 percent. This is a remarkable, and a most unexpected, turnaround.” Commissioner Paris and the whole community had gone to work with New Hope. “We developed working relationships in this effort with the cities of Blairsville, and surrounding communities, including North Carolina. Most extraordinarily, Watkins notes, “of all eleven grants awarded nationally, ours has been one of the most successful. We 40 GEORGIA 358640_G_Ben.indd 1 COUNTY GOVERNMENT 12/18/07 9:15:34 PM http://www.gbtengineers.com
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