Dual Diagnosis Drug Treatment

Recognizing mental illness as a disease took years. Drug addiction, whether the drug is methamphetamine or alcohol, faces the same struggle, with the added burden of having people dismiss it as little more than a bad choice, speakers at Thursday night’s Recovery Town Hall Meeting told an audience of about 100. The meeting was at Polk Community College in Lakeland, Florida.
“Addiction is a disease,” said Bill Janes, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control. “It’s chronic. It’s progressive. It’s predictable. … It is a disease that, without treatment, will result in serious consequences.”

Drug addicts often also have mental illness, a condition known as “co-occurring disorders, or dual diagnosis” but drug treatment programs for mental illness and drug addiction have a history of competing. That needs to change, Janes said, along with the secrecy surrounding both.
“We must talk about it,” he said, calling people with those disorders “vulnerable” and programs to help them at risk.

“In times of budget reduction, the most vulnerable become more vulnerable,” said Janes, who also is assistant secretary of substance abuse and mental health for the Florida Department of Children and Families.
One thing he wants to change is having one-third of his division’s budget spent on “deep end” services for the seriously and chronically mentally ill. He said more money needs to be put into earlier efforts such as crisis intervention, drop-in centers and clubhouses to help people with mental illnesses function in their communities.

The need for more funding can’t be ignored, said Mel Williams, who works with Tri-County Human Services’ jail programs to rehabilitate drug abusers. Graduates of that program and others have difficulty finding halfway houses to help them fit back into the community.

“If we do not do something to provide them with the help they need, they’re going to die or end up in prison for the rest of their lives,” Williams said. “We need more facilities to put people in when they finish a drug treatment program so they don’t go back to the same locations.”

Backing up those concerns, local panelists shared their experiences - as patients, family members or law enforcement officers - with lack of access to programs and education. But they also offered a ray of hope through what they learned in the process.

“I truly believe if I hadn’t gotten into a drug treatment program, I would be dead,” said a panelist who identified herself only as Denise. “Recovery has taken me out of the dark and brought me into the light. Without drug treatment, we’re going to see a lot more people dying.”

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