The Dr. Sushma D. Taylor Recovery Center, at 790 Sonoma Ave. in Santa Rosa, is the newest facility in DAAC's $12 million annual operation [Duncan Garrett]
Melvy Ramos made a call about a dozen years ago that changed her life—personally and professionally.
The North Bay woman reached out to Center Point DAAC (Drug Abuse Alternatives Center) when she hit what she bills as her “rock bottom.”
Ramos, 38, became both a patient and eventually an employee for the Santa Rosa nonprofit that focuses on offering comprehensive and compassionate treatment for substance abuse and addiction. That’s how much she believes in the mission of the center established in 1969 by a Sonoma County group concerned about the growth in drug abuse and led by Dr. Sushma Taylor.
Drug addiction for Ramos started at 16 years old.
“I remember it like yesterday. I was cutting classes and ended up in the woods [of Marin County],” she says.
When someone whipped out a pipe and asked her to try it, she obliged.
“It was all fun and games,” she says, adding her drug of choice was methamphetamine.
Her mother didn’t suspect she had a problem because she was an honor roll student, and Ramos demonstrated she had energy.
“She was surprised the house was so clean,” Ramos says.
But her drug use followed her into adulthood.
The single mother of two lost nearly everything around 2012. Precious belongings dating back to her childhood were wiped away from a storage unit “in the blink of an eye.” She was also evicted from the hotel room she was living in, and says her roommate “tricked her” into signing over her car to the supposed “friend.”
She was caught in a downward spiral. Facing the harsh reality of living on the streets, Ramos knew the situation would be devastating to her family.
Despite her addiction, Ramos still had some fight in her. She maintained a job, so she felt somewhat functional. But she spent much of her money on drugs.
“I didn’t think I had a problem,” she says. “It was like I was living two separate lives.”
Something had to change.
One of the managers at the Chipotle where she worked was a graduate of Center Point DAAC and suggested she consider the nonprofit’s treatment programs, saying the company would support her efforts.
“I let them know my truth,” she says of her employer. And she entered into treatment at DAAC with the notion the life-altering experience would be short-lived. “I thought I was going to be there only 30 days.”
It turned into a way of life. Her sobriety has lasted 12 years, and she now works at Center Point DAAC as an outpatient program manager.
“This is not what I envisioned for a career,” she says. “I’m a new person.”
Reaching those who need help
Center Point DAAC Interim Regional Vice President Chris Geiger has not only heard the Ramos story before, he has lived it. His drug use also started when he was a teenager.
Geiger highlights the common connection between homelessness and drug abuse.
“It’s been a big problem. With the psychiatric hospital closures [in the 1980s], those people ended up on the streets,” he says.
The Center Point DAAC chief views clients as being on a spectrum of denial as to whether they have an addiction problem.
“They could drink too much but have no DUI,” he says, as an example.
Despite a recent uptick in meth use, the dominant culprit of drug abuse today remains fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. The problem with the substance approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for pain relief is it’s 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more than heroin, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“You can put it on a tip of a pencil, and it can kill you,” Geiger says.
The problem is accentuated when other drugs are “cut” with fentanyl, meaning the latter blends in. Geiger cites the fatal case last February of Santa Rosa high school girls who allegedly bought a substance they believed was cocaine but was laced with fentanyl.
Geiger says the public proliferation of Narcan— a medication to reverse opioid overdoses—has helped stem many near-fatal encounters. And the word of the nasal spray is quickly catching on.
He cites a recent example of a man who ran into Center Point’s facility to get Narcan when his friend appeared to be suffering from an overdose and he saw the facility’s sign.
“That literally saved this guy’s life,” Geiger says.
Challenges ahead
Center Point DAAC’s “census,” as in its client and patient population, stands at about 400 people, consisting of residents under treatment. The bulk of those who use the service are considered “outpatient” clients.
They include:
* Assessment and evaluation as an initial examination.
* Outpatient programs that allow the user to come and go from their daily activities.
* Residential, which at a more intensive level of treatment, houses the client in a more structured environment with 10 beds available.
* Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) that combines medications with counseling and behavioral therapies to promote long-term recovery.
* Counseling and therapy, whether individual or group, makes for an integral part of recovery.
* Family support, which integrates family members into the healing process.
The verdict is out on how proposed Medicaid cuts will play out since the current federal budget calls for reductions starting next year.
U.S. Senate Democrats cite cuts to Medicaid as the reason they didn’t vote for a resolution to fund the federal government, resulting in a shutdown that began Oct. 1.
“There’s a concern we could lose funding. But we’re unsure how those cuts are going to manifest,” Geiger says.
If anything, pressures on the industry as a whole have already mounted in the lack of intake staff, he points out. This results in longer wait times to get those seeking recovery into treatment as well as more red tape getting staff up to par, after passing the screening, credentialing and training processes.
“It could take a couple of months,” Geiger says.
Still, Geiger and his staff of 85 remain committed to the cause.
The interim director would even like to expand on the offerings, pointing to “treatment on demand” as a solution to the needs of a populace on the go.
“It would work to get people who need treatment to get it that day,” he says.
Learn more at cpdaac.org.
