Young Clients Worry as Center for Addicts Runs Low on Funds : DRUGS: Center for Teen-Agers, Families Endangered

Josh was the kind of youngster whom prison authorities describe as incorrigible.

Arrested first when he was 9 years old for stealing from a grocery store to buy drugs, the North Hollywood youth was in and out of trouble with the law until recently, when he kicked his heroin addiction with the help of a West Hills treatment program.

Now, the nonprofit, outpatient program--Palmer Drug Abuse Program--is in financial trouble, and Josh is scared of what might happen to him and about 75 other teen-agers and their families if it folds.

“Last summer, I kicked back with sober people at the drop-in center instead of hanging out with my homeboys on the street,” said Josh, who is 19 and requested that his last name not be used. “If it closes, I guess I could go to an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting like I tried before, but everyone was older and no one even said ‘Hi.’ ”

Until last month, youngsters and their parents could drop in any time during the day or evening for counseling at the First United Methodist Church in West Hills, where Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP) rents an office. The program also has offered twice-weekly support groups for youths and their parents, and “sober” activities, such as camp-outs and parties, since it was founded in 1980.

But faced with dwindling donations and an increasing number of clients who cannot afford to pay much for services, the program has laid off one of its two counselors, reduced the hours of the center and barely has enough money to limp along until February, officials said.

The program is one of only two in the San Fernando Valley that provide outpatient drug and alcohol counseling for teen-agers and their families for little or no cost, health-care providers said. The other is Interagency Drug Abuse Recovery Programs, (I-ADARP), which has clinics in Reseda and Newhall.

Together, the two programs can only provide services for about 300 youths and families per year, far fewer than is needed, health care providers said.

“It’s the old story--if you have money and health insurance, there are lots of services available, but if you don’t, it’s tough,” said Al Jeffries, executive director of the National Council on Alcoholism of the San Fernando Valley, a research and education group that estimates about $15 billion a year is spent on chemical dependency treatments.

“If PDAP closes, it will be a real loss to the community,” Jeffries said.

The Palmer agency is independent of a program in Texas with the same name once run by Bob Meehan, who vaulted into prominence in 1979 for helping entertainer Carol Burnett’s daughter kick drugs, but was later criticized for allegedly exercising cult-like control over youngsters.)

At least 40%, or $24,000, of the program’s annual operating budget of $60,000 is donated by the ASAP Family Treatment Program, a commercial residential and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program based in Sherman Oaks.

But ASAP Director David Lewis said the recent dearth of donations from Palmer parents has prompted him to closely examine the effectiveness of the program through a demographic survey of clients to be conducted during the next several weeks.

“It’s become a financial drain on us,” Lewis said. “What we hope happens is that parents will pick up the ball and get some fund raising going.”

Sandra Dedinas, 54, a Woodland Hills resident and parent coordinator for Palmer, said the group is determined to raise enough money to survive by holding fund raisers and soliciting corporate donations. On Jan. 13, the teen-agers and their parents will have a carwash at a gas station, owned by one of the parents, at Burbank Boulevard and Kester Street in Van Nuys, she said.

Like many of the parents involved in the program, Dedinas joined after her teen-age son was released from a hospital where he had been treated for cocaine addiction. For Dedinas, the Palmer program has been a miracle cure for her son and for her family’s problems, she said, adding that she found the support of other parents invaluable.

Dedinas said one obstacle to the fund-raising effort, however, is that many of the parents are single and work full time, or are otherwise preoccupied with the havoc wrought by coping with drug- and alcohol-dependent children. “We’re in a lot of pain,” she said.

Another obstacle is that the public tends to be ambivalent about helping families and youths recover from drug and alcohol problems, said Jay Cavanaugh, director of the Interagency Drug Abuse Recovery Programs, which is federally funded and receives fees and donations.

“All of the nonprofit programs are struggling financially,” Cavanaugh said. “The lack of community support, which often results because people blame the families and think they don’t deserve to recover, is scandalous.

“People keep talking about the war on drugs, but when you get down to it, they don’t want to give.”

But Michael Bond, a spokesman for LifePLUS Foundation, a nonprofit residential drug- and alcohol-treatment center in Panorama City, said the Palmer program should attempt to be more self-supporting. Teen-agers and their families are charged on a sliding scale, from no monthly payments to $60 or more, counselor Schiavo said.

“The days of the free ride are over--it’s just too expensive to have a free drop-in center,” said Bond, whose program is funded by fees and by hospitals, including Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

But poor and affluent youngsters alike need the services that Palmer offers, said PDAP counselor Cher Schiavo, who has been donating many hours a week to the financially beleaguered group, although she is only being paid for working halftime.

“How can we turn them away?” she asked.

And at a recent support group meeting, 16-year-old Mary of Canoga Park added her testimonial to those given by Josh and other teens.

“I’m a dope fiend,” said Mary, who has been sober for almost a year. “My boyfriend died from an overdose, and if I didn’t have PDAP for support, I might be dead myself.”