Drug Abuse Foundation
Friars' drug abuse program wins grant - Health Beat Briefs - St. Christopher's Inn receives grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Brief ArticlePatricia Lefevere St. Christopher's Inn, a drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation program run by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in Garrison, N.Y., is one of 10 agencies from a field of 334 substance abuse programs to receive a $193,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J.
The 18-month grant will allow the nonprofit agency to join a national learning collaboration on substance abuse treatment. Called Paths to Recovery, the process is designed to make innovations in how quickly addicts can access treatment and how agencies can overcome barriers to retaining clients.
Fewer than one in four Americans addicted to alcohol or drugs receives treatment. As many as half of those who do access treatment leave their program before its full benefit can be realized, noted Marianne Taylor Rhoades, operations director at St. Christopher's. "We have a tiny window of opportunity when a homeless man telephones us from New York," she told NCR.
St. Christopher's--the only faith-based agency to be chosen--treated 1,171 men last year, many of them homeless. Clients stay 60 days on average; about a third remain 90 days. The program of spiritual, physical and emotional healing has served thousands of men over 94 years.
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