Incorporated in 1971 as a non-for-profit 501(c) 3 corporation, DAPC began as a 12-bed long-term residential drug treatment agency. Treatment is modeled after a modified therapeutic community (TC) concept

At first, DAPC was funded through private donations and with the support of local guilds. In 1976, DAPC became eligible for funding from the State of Washington Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA).

A statewide increase in the demand for residential beds resulted in DAPC leasing the former Toutle River Boys Ranch in 1998; thereby, increasing capacity to 38 licensed beds. In 2004, DAPC purchased the residential facility.

In order to provide our clients with a full continuum of services; in 1983 DAPC opened its’ outpatient clinic in Kelso, WA. Services were further expanded in 1999 when DAPC became a provider of Drug Court Services to the Cowlitz County Superior Court System. In response to community demand, in 2003, DAPC implemented its’ STARS (Sharing, Talking, Achieving, Recovering, Sisterhood) servicing pregnant/postpartum women and their families.In August 2005 DAPC opened a 16-bed residential program for pregnant, postpartum, parenting women in Longview, WA and a Parent-Child Assistance Program in Kelso, WA. On February 1, 2006, we became the provider to the family dependency treatment court called HOPE (Helping Our Parents Excel).

We realize getting clean and sober is just the beginning. Once sobriety is achieved, the process of rebuilding must begin. Often, an addict feels overwhelmed and receives little or no help.

Relapse occurs when people lack ongoing support, structure, guidance and the skills necessary to face the challenges of life after achieving abstinence. Therefore, DAPC’s programs focus on many areas of the client’s life, ranging from social and family relationships, personal and professional goals, health/fitness, and spirituality, to independent living.

The Outpatient Program helps our clients move out of their addiction and into clean and sober productive lives using a hands-on approach to help them achieve their life goals.

The goal of our program is to reduce prenatal substance use among patients to improve birth outcomes and infant development. Specific targets of the program are:

• To identify women with chemical dependency problems who are pregnant or are mother’s to children up to 1 year old.
• Increase positive pregnancy outcomes, healthy pregnancy and deliveries.
• Guide mom’s to more resources in the community; parenting classes, mental health, medical care, WIC, etc.
• Decrease hospital costs by having a healthy baby and mother for delivery
• Increase compliance between mom’s and CPS
  - Assist with homelessness and food needs.
• Increase social and primary support for moms
• Decrease jail for moms
• Increase knowledge about domestic violence
• Strengthening families

Data supplied by the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse shows that:

• Providing treatment to substance abusing pregnant women reduced healthcare costs of their drug exposed infants
• Chemically dependent pregnant women who received treatment had healthier babies
• Substance abusing women who received chemical dependency treatment prenatally were less likely to have a low birth weight baby compared to women who did not receive treatment (8.7% versus 12.9%)
• Women who completed treatment had the best birth outcomes
  

In a sample of 365 substance abusing women in Washington State, birth outcomes of women who received no treatment or who dropped out of treatment early were compared to those who completed the full course of treatment. Results showed that women who received no treatment were over three times more likely to deliver a baby prematurely, had an increased frequency of placental abruption, as well as a higher frequency of fetal or infant deaths. (Washington State MOMS Project, 1999). Alcohol and drug abuse cannot be separated from the social, emotional, and economic conditions in women’s lives. As a community we must begin to develop systems that offer Cowlitz County women, children and families coordinated, comprehensive and multidimensional health, education and support services if we are to have any hope of preventing or intervening early in alcohol and drug problems in women and children.

Parent-Child Assistance Program
Longview, WA (360) 425-9600

The goals of the program are to: (1) assist mothers in obtaining treatment, maintaining recovery, and resolving the complex problems associated with their substance abuse; (2) guarantee that the children are in a safe environment and receiving appropriate health care; (3) effectively link families with community resources; (4) demonstrate successful strategies for working with this population in order to prevent the risk of future drug-and-alcohol-affected children.

The program does not provide direct alcohol, drug treatment or clinical services, but instead offers consistent home visitation and links women and their families with a comprehensive array of existing community resources. Paraprofessional advocates have a maximum caseload of 15 families. They visit clients with appropriate service providers, and work actively within the context of the extended family. Clients are not required to obtain alcohol/drug treatment in order to participate, and are never asked to leave the program because of relapse or setbacks. Advocates trace clients who are missing, stay in contact with the client’s family members, and provide advocacy services for the target child regardless of who has custody of the child.

Participants are high-risk substance abusing women. Criteria for inclusion in the program include chronic alcohol and/or drug use during pregnancy, and little connection with community service providers, including little or no prenatal care.

The intervention lasts 36 months. Advocates visit client homes weekly for the first 6 weeks, then biweekly or more frequently, depending on client needs.

Our TC emphasizes the integration of an individual within the community. Progress is measured within the context of the community and against the community’s expectation. It is the community, working with the individual, which accomplishes the positive change in the member. One’s ability to live up to the community’s expectations is taken as an important measure of readiness to move toward integration into the larger society outside of DAPC.

“Preventing future births of alcohol & drug exposed babies.”

The Phoenix House Program Model is the result of collaboration between the Longview Housing Authority and the Drug Abuse Prevention Center. The model calls for a three-part approach to meeting the needs of homeless parents and their children by providing for:
            1.  Permanent affordable housing, available to families as long as needed.
            2.  Intensive family services, designed to build on the strengths of family                                members and maximize success.
            3.  Child services aimed at meeting the needs of children.

This is a uniquely designed homeless housing project that will be owned, operated and maintained by the Longview Housing Authority.  The physical design assures family security, facilitates the provision of program services, and allows for accommodating changes in family size brought about by family reunification efforts that will be a major emphasis of the project.
           
Over the past 37 years the Drug Abuse Prevention Center has developed an extensive network of collaborators that will provide multiple integrated services to the families, parents, and children served by the project.  In place memorandum of agreements between Drug Abuse Prevention Center and the various service providers require that individualized treatment and service plans be developed in a collaborative and coordinated way to ensure that all service goals are pursuing the same ends.

During their stay in residence at Phoenix House, each family will have the opportunity to participate in a three-phase recovery program.  Each phase has specific program goals and services designed to help mothers and their children become independent.  The phases consist of the following:
 
Phase I “Taking Care of Me”
This phase of treatment will focus on initial self-care that will stress the need for the client to be healthy mentally, physically, and chemically in order to be an effective parent.

Phase II “Looking ahead: where will I be in 1, 5, and 10 years?”
This phase will help clients develop a sense of possibilities and future goals.

Specific child-centered activities will be offered to help the children in the program experience nurturing, healthy bonding, consistent care and normalizing activities from the adults in their lives.  A child community room will allow children to go to activities and interact with other young children.  This community room will also serve as a classroom where educational services will be provided for children zero to 3 years to prepare them for school.

            We will contract with Progress Center to provide a zero to three curriculum on site in the Phoenix House classroom.  They will implement a parent/child/teacher best practice program with parents participating in the classroom.  The program will require WFF to fund a Early Childhood Specialist (lead teacher) and an Assistant Teacher.  The teacher-to-child ratio will be 1:5, not counting the parent participation.  Each child will receive classroom education for 10 hours/week for 12 month per year.

            The classroom environment would be designed with enriched learning activities to strengthen each child’s literacy, language and vocabulary sills as well as their fine and gross motor skills.  A developmental screening (Ages and Stages Questionnaire) would occur on each child as well as ongoing assessments of the child’s developmental stages to assist the staff with developing a curriculum that best meets each individual child’s needs.  This would also give the teacher the opportunity to detect any early signs of special needs that the child may have which will help to give the child the earliest intervention assistance to develop the readiness skills necessary for the next school setting.

            When residents are ready to leave the Phoenix House, they will be eligible to receive a Section 8 Housing Voucher.  They will have a job, a GED, a credit score, a bank account, a rental history, and a preferred renter’s certificate.

For information contact:
 
Gus Nolte, Executive Director
Drug Abuse Prevention Center
P.O. Box 890
Kelso, WA 98626
(360) 425-9600, ext 35
Email: fnolte_dapcenter@qwest.net