College to Offer Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation in the Classroom : Innovation: A community college instructor sees the class as a way to reach those who cannot afford standard treatment programs. Experts in the field are skeptical.

Los Angeles Mission College, a small community college in San Fernando, has attracted both curiosity and skepticism with the announcement that it will offer an outpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in the guise of a one-semester class.

According to Mission College administrators, students can use the revolutionary course to fight their drug or alcohol problems and earn three units of college credit at the same time.

James Crossen, the course’s instructor, said the class was developed in the hope of reaching community residents who otherwise might not seek treatment.

“Many people who live in the Pacoima and Sylmar areas can’t afford expensive hospital or outpatient programs, but they still need help,” said Crossen, who formerly spent seven years as program director for the Chemical Dependency Recovery Center at AMI Medical Center of North Hollywood. “We think this course will compare in many ways to an outpatient program but hopefully be an affordable alternative.”

Beginning Feb. 9, the class will meet each Friday afternoon at the Clara Pledger Counseling Center in Pacoima, where students will receive education about alcoholism, an introduction to the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and encouragement from other recovering alcoholics and addicts.

The course costs $15 and is also open to family members and friends who want help in dealing with the effects of alcoholism. It is being offered as part of Mission College’s Chemical Dependency Studies Program, which was founded by Crossen and trains students to work as drug rehabilitation counselors.

Several professionals in the field of alcoholism treatment said that, in concept, the idea for a recovery class is a good one. Nevertheless, they voiced skepticism about its chances for success.

Dr. Lloyd Hyndman, medical director of the Alcoholism and Chemical Dependency Service at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, said he respects Crossen professionally “and I think he really wants to find a method to help people who can’t afford other programs. But I don’t know whether this is going to work. . . . We know from experience that people don’t get sober and stay sober because of intellectual learning. There also has to be a complete change of attitude and behavior.”

Tom Kenny, substance-abuse program director for the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Los Angeles, said he doubts whether a college course will attract people from the community who need help.

“There may be similarities between this class and an outpatient program, but there’s also a big difference,” Kenny said. “People usually get into an outpatient program because of intervention by an employer, a spouse or after they’ve been through an inpatient program. When you consider the fact that alcoholism is a disease of denial, it makes you wonder how many people are going to sign up just because they read about it in a class schedule.”

Although the course is formally listed in Mission College’s class schedule as “Chemical Dependency III,” Crossen was quick to point out that passing Chemical Dependency I and II--which are purely academic courses--is not a prerequisite.

“That’s just how the course got listed,” he said.

Flyers about the class describe it as “a treatment and recovery program for individual alcoholics and drug addicts of whatever kind.” In addition to presenting educational information, Crossen said there also will be group therapy sessions and presentations on job hunting techniques.

Programs on alcohol education and drug-abuse prevention aren’t new for community colleges. But offering classes on recovery from alcoholism very well may be.

In 1986, legislation was passed that enables colleges to receive federal funding for implementing alcohol and drug education programs, according to Carole Richard, a spokeswoman with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento. Although two community colleges and six universities in California receive funding for such programs, she said, no specifics are currently available to determine whether any institution other than Mission College is offering credit courses on recovery. None of the eight colleges that receive federal funding report offering a class on recovery. The Mission College course receives no government funding.

Nor does it seem likely that a proliferation of such courses will take place in the near future.

Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, one of the two community colleges receiving federal money for its alcohol education program, reported that there is no plan to follow Mission College’s into the realm of recovery.

“Personally, I think it’s stretching things a bit ethically to offer a course like that for credit,” said Thom Thomas, adviser with the Saddleback’s Alcohol and Drug Certificate Program. “Also, there’s the whole question of insurance. Once you say that you are offering treatment, you open the college up to the whole issue of liability.”

Crossen, however, dismissed the idea of liability as bureaucratic paranoia.

“Education is treatment, and it’s all a lot of semantic nonsense,” he said. “When it comes down to it, that’s all recovery can be--education about the disease, about yourself, and learning what steps you need to take to stop drinking or using drugs.”

Los Angeles Community College District officials, who last November reviewed Mission College’s request to offer the course, apparently shared that view. According to District spokeswoman Irene Pinkard, Crossen and some of the 400 students involved in the college’s chemical dependency studies program--many of whom themselves are recovering alcoholics--made an impassioned plea to be permitted to offer the class.

“They talked about their own recovery, and how important it was for them to reach out to others. It was a very emotional presentation and very moving,” Pinkard said. “Colleges certainly have a role now in addressing the problem of alcoholism and addiction, and this seemed like a way for us to do that.”

Like Pinkard, Crossen shrugged at the suggestion that the unorthodox class could clear the way for other colleges to become involved in the area of alcoholism recovery.

“We didn’t set out to blaze new trails by offering this course. We just wanted to help people who need it,” Crossen said. “If it turns out later that we have blazed a new trail,” he said, “so be it.”

Registration for the course begins Jan. 22, but students also can register the first night of class. For more information, call (818) 897-7731 or (818) 994-6858.