There is an answer for alcoholism and drug-addiction in Lacy Township

The reality is adolescents with an alcohol and drug addiction do get well. For parents now facing the early signs of addictive behavior and those who are dealing with the later stages of the disease, I would suggest looking at the following effective patterns of treatment. Realize as well that there is not an intensive outpatient program specifically designed for this population of young adults anywhere in Lacey Township, so my first suggestion is build one. The Be Attitudes Educational Foundation in Toms River had a history of working with chemically addicted kids and their families. Reproduce that model and remember that many of these suggestions are non-negotiable, they have already been found effective.
1.  (Leadership) The community needs an ASAM (The American Society of Addiction Medicine) Certified Physician to take a position of leadership within the community as the medical authority. It would be ideal if this medical doctor was also a female in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction herself. In other words she would have the same experience plus her medical knowledge to work with individuals and their families, who suffers from the same addiction many of the young people of Lacey suffer from today. This medical doctor can be afforded the community through the impaired physicians program in the State of NJ. Many of these physicians have already received reinstatement by the medical board and must still complete community hours. They may be used to reeducate the current medical personnel that have already seen these children for the past twenty years inn Lacey Township and missed the much of the earlier symptomology that has lead to this crisis.
2.  (An Integrated-Collaborative Clinical Team)           A clinical team needs to be established, then developed that incorporates the best learned practices from the surrounding community. The team must consist of a leading MD (in recovery from this disease), and those physicians who children and families have as well suffered from this disease. An attorney like Steven Willis, Toms River, NJ who is both personally as well as profesionally knowledgeable about the disease of addiction and can outline specific stratagies nessary to deal with the child or family that is highly resistent to treatment. A special education teacher-coach-counselor in recovery and knowledgeable about relapse who will work directly with the suffering kids and families to produce an educationally oriented treatment plan that meets the specific learning styles of each family. A Family-liason coordinators (MOM and DAD) will be needed as go betweens for mothers and fathers that will need support during the early phases of recovery. An accountant, to provide a financial outline as to how best to afford treatment-Education by providing a scholarship process where by each family pays forward a donation to this charity, thus capturing tax dollars at the state and federal level that can be used to fund grassroots community based treatment. (10% per taxable individual, 20% per local business)Case Manaagers as Interns from most of the state's major universities who are in need of paid and non-paid clinical hours in the fields of special education, recreation, social work, pre-med students, law, nurse practitioners/ nursing students, clergy, CADC Candidates, retired recovering adults and volunteers. All of these individuals are readily available in Ocean County as elsewhere within the state. All are ready, willing and required to log hours to receive their degrees as well.
3.  (Multi-media Platform)    The entire recovery process is a learning experience and in most cases is easily duplicatable. By harnessing a computor platform and integrating a free-campus recovering curriculum, kids and families, could log on anywhere and recieve the educational components of the treatment plan. It could be as easy as using the  scope and sequence for a  K-12 drug and alcohol public school curriculum. Essentially for those in pre-treatment the additional curriculum review could be afforded older more mature student-patients and written assignments could compliment the states additional literacy guidelines for no child left behind. Another alternative to the gifted and talented student-patients and older family members, they could subscribe to the  Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselors curriculum as an informational foundation. Upon completion of educational-treatment they might choose to enter the fields of counseling as a much more experiened professional, giving meaning to all that pain. (How many of us do that!)
4. (Confidentiality) If this entire process is meant to reach an entire community, offer it as a Core Course in the Curriculum for Healthy Lacey Families (which doesn't exist yet). Make the completion of this course a mandate for certain students to particapate in either curricular or extracurricular activities. Give the students and family members academic credit when they pass the course. Suspected students, who have proven dirty urines may be subject to advisement from a judge as to their next corse of action bearing in mind that they are guilty of internal pocession, as in being under the influence of a mood altering chemical without a prescription. Group processes will be afforded student-patients and their families, much like a lab class might accompany a biology class for students experientially motivated to use, misuse, abuse, alcohol and other mood-altering chemicals.
5. (Adapted Curriculum to meet the specific learning needs of kids and families) The entire process will require the administrative attention much like a college with students at very different levels of learning. Some student-patients may require more time on a specific subject or aspect of the curriculum than others. Additional professionals will be incorporated to meet the needs of student-patients who require a more restrictive learning environment.
6.  (conditioning)  Life Coaches understand the value of the physically conditioning of an athlete and have written volumes on the subject. The emotional and social conditioning of any adolescent is just as critical. However the "Spiritual Conditioning" of these children lags far behind. Adapting a holistic approach to community treatment allows the clinical team to examine the spiritual values of this community; the morals, the values, the attitudes and belief  constructs that are currently being instilled in these children and practiced among the adults.
7. (Beginning Intervention)  By establishing a community based-outreach plan, the team will encourage participation through values clarification, determining the community's baseline for measurement. We will begin the assessment with type of responsies that follow this letter. One form of measurment begins as we speak. It is said that you can measure the quality of a community by what it does again, and again, and again for the least of its brothers, sisters, and families
8. (Who is this Guy...a stone the builders once threw out)  I would like to help, that is why I wrote this!
I can be reached at 305-924-0402 or Coachjohnmcgovern@yahoo.com